The Super hero's Journey

This course focuses on heroes. First, students will be introduced to Joseph Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey. We will then apply this structuralist model to different case studies, particularly focusing on the classical superheroes (e.g. Superman). Subsequently, we will turn to more contemporary examples of superhero narratives (such as Alan Moore’s Watchmen, the TV show -Misfits”, and superhero films like Chronicle, The Avengers or The Dark Knight), move beyond Campbell’s model and adopt a poststructuralist perspective. In this second part we will focus on how superhero stories change over time with regard to aspects such as backstories, constellations of good and evil, the representation of science and of the state as well as the intermedial relations of comics and their movie adaptations. Students are also very much welcome to bring in their own suggestions. This course is offered as a -Blockseminar” because it will close with an excursion to the -Comics Student Conference” that will take place in Dortmund from May 10-12. Students wishing to participate in this course will thus have to attend the conference on Saturday, May 11 where they will present selected results of the seminar to other students. There will be no conference fee. Texts that need be read BEFORE the first meeting will be uploaded to Moodle. Anglistik - Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft Universität Siegen 20131 SoSe 2013 M.A. Peters Maria Verena M.A