Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Acosta-Ponce, Carlos David

Titel

Identity, Oppression, and Upheaval in the British Invasion: The Comics of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Peter Milligan, and Jamie Delano

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This project explores representations of the intersections between social identities in the comic books from the period known as the British Invasion of Comics and examines how Alan Moore, Nail Gaiman, Peter Milligan and Jamie Delano portray the interactions of gender, race, nation, sexuality and other social identities as mechanisms of criticism of Western conservative ideologies, Thatcherism, and Reaganism.The first chapter explores the work of Alan Moore. Moore’s early work portrays the use of the sexual assault and general abuse of female characters as a mechanism to advance male character narratives, oftentimes in a gratuitous, misogynist manner. However, this same work was lauded by critics for its examination of elements of eighties’ politics such as Cold War paranoia and the nuclear arms race, as well as the problematizing of racial privilege and social dominance.The second chapter analyzes Neil Gaiman’s work on The Sandman. Gaiman’s supernatural take on the Simon and Kirby character from the seventies explores several social identities, including depicting several prominent queer characters. Gaiman was one of the first mainstream comic book writers to present a prominent transgender character outside switched-body or mind-control tropes. The Sandman also explores matters of race, and social class, subverting and destabilizing reader expectations of white, heterosexual, able-bodied, characters.The third chapter discusses the work of Peter Milligan. Shade: The Changing Man presents a title character who periodically dies and returns to life and examines notions of tradition and prevailing social structures. In Enigma, Milligan presents a frank exploration of fluid sexual orientation, identity, and choice, problematizing the main character’s male heterosexuality when he becomes attracted to his male superhero idol. Finally, The Extremist, a revenge tale starring a woman who navigates several extreme sex clubs while trying to locate her husband’s killer, challenges social expectations of womanhood, gender roles, and the values of the upper middle-class.The fourth and final chapter of this project analyzes the work of Jamie Delano, including Hellblazer, World Without End, and 20/20 Visions. Hellblazer follows the exploits of John Constantine, a bisexual supernatural detective. World Without End is a science fiction limited series centered on a futuristic and allegorical war of the sexes. Finally, 20/20 Visions is an anthology sci-fi series that examines sexuality, class struggles, race, and gender roles in four three-issue story arcs.The work of the British Invaders explores these intersecting social identities and the hierarchical nature of power structures, using a broad range of characters to create narratives that began to normalize diversity at a time where little was said about the topic in mainstream culture. Ultimately, this paper argues for the existence of a sort of proto-intersectional approach by the British invaders where stereotypes, social expectations, and mainstream values were problematized in order to question the hegemonic forces of the late twentieth century.