Research Catalog

Bending steel : modernity and the American superhero

Title: Bending steel : modernity and the American superhero / Aldo J. Regalado.
Author: Regalado, Aldo J.
Publication: Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2015]
Supplementary Content: Cover image

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 19-1825	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

x, 289 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

""Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It's Superman!" Bending Steel examines the historical origins and cultural significance of Superman and his fellow American crusaders. Cultural historian Aldo J. Regalado asserts that the superhero seems a direct response to modernity, often fighting the interrelated processes of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and capitalism that transformed the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present. Reeling from these exciting but rapid and destabilizing forces, Americans turned to heroic fiction as a means of explaining national and personal identities to themselves and to the world. In so doing, they created characters and stories that sometimes affirmed, but other times subverted conventional notions of race, class, gender, and nationalism. The cultural conversation articulated through the nation's early heroic fiction eventually led to a new heroic type--the brightly clad, super-powered, pro-social action heroes that first appeared in American comic books starting in the late 1930s. Although indelibly shaped by the Great Depression and World War II sensibilities of the second-generation immigrants most responsible for their creation, comic book superheroes remain a mainstay of American popular culture. Tracing superhero fiction all the way back to the nineteenth century, Regalado firmly bases his analysis of dime novels, pulp fiction, and comics in historical, biographical, and reader response sources. He explores the roles played by creators, producers, and consumers in crafting superhero fiction, ultimately concluding that these narratives are essential for understanding vital trajectories in American culture"--

Subjects

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Secret origins -- Jungle lords, haunting horrors, and the big city -- From strange visitors to men of tomorrow -- From steel and shadows to the flag -- Domestication, dysfunction, and the rise of superhero fandom -- From Renaissance to the Dark Age.

Call Number

JFE 19-1825

ISBN

9781628462210
1628462213
9781496813039
1496813030

LCCN

2015005899

OCLC

893899233

Author

Regalado, Aldo J.

Title

Bending steel : modernity and the American superhero / Aldo J. Regalado.

Publisher

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2015]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Connect to:

Cover image

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Other Form:

Online version: Regalado, Aldo J. Bending steel. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2015 9781626746145 (DLC) 2015012913

Research Call Number

JFE 19-1825

View in Legacy Catalog