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- Sadri, Houman, 1971
(författare)
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Mass-Surveillance and the Negation of the Monomyth
- 2018
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Ingår i: Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research. - 2342-2009. ; 5:1, s. 21-33
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The enduring popularity of superhero narratives in the post-9/11 cultural landscape testifies, to some extent, to the continued cultural ubiquity of Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’, but the notion of heroism itself is challenged somewhat by another seemingly ubiquitous product of the terrorist attacks: the proliferation, and absorption into Monomythical narratives, of the tropes of mass surveillance and technologically-aided snooping. It is my argument that the ability to perform such acts of surveillance essentially precludes and negates the Hero’s Journey itself – not for moral reasons, but because these acts represent the use of a power beyond that of a mortal hero, and the essential repositioning of the characters in question as godlike beings. As a result of this repositioning, the Monomyth – a pattern which, after all, describes the progress of mortal humans through dangerous terrain that they do not always understand – no longer applies, and thus neither do the terms hero or heroic. Thus, the Batman of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ’s Nick Fury negate their own heroism and, by committing acts of hubris, invite the miasma and nemesis they are seen to suffer by the respective films’ conclusions. In this way, the paranoia and, indeed, surveillance possibilities of the post-9/11 age can be seen to inform and, to an extent, redefine, both the Monomyth and the very concept of the Monomythical hero.
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- Sadri, Houman, 1971
(författare)
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Original Sin as Salvation: The Apocalyptic Boon in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials"
- 2019
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Ingår i: Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture / edited by Joe Trotta, Zlatan Filipovic, Houman Sadri. - New York : Routledge. - 9780367235918 ; , s. 202-217
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this piece, Houman Sadri applies the concept of ‘apocalypse’ in its original sense as an uncovering of hidden truth; the apocalypse here does not represent an end of everything, but rather is offered as a cure for our dystopian condition. The approach is firmly informed by the work of Joseph Campbell in his in his framing of the Hero’s Journey, or Monomyth, and the chapter explores the apocalyptic denouement of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (1995; 1997; 2000). Through his exploration of the text, Sadri also appraises the concept of apocalypse itself as this boon writ large, with the transfigurative paradigm shift being pinpointed as something far older in nature than it may initially appear.
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- Sadri, Houman, 1971
(författare)
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Reconfiguring the Hero’s Journey – The Monomyth in Contemporary Popular Culture
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den här avhandlingen analyserar hur den så kallade hjälteresan eller monomyten gestaltas i samtida texter och media. Det övergripande syftet är att undersöka vilken giltighet och relevans strukturen som skapades av Joseph Campbell i The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) har inom engelskspråkig populärkultur. Genom att studera hur utvalda samtida texter korresponderar med viktiga stationer av den hjälteresa som Campbell utstakar visar avhandlingen på modellens fortsatta relevans för förståelsen av nutida hjältenarrativ. Projektet utforskar på vilket sätt monomyten och de undersökta texterna genomsyrar varandra, hur strukturen kan användas som ett tolkningsverktyg samt hur de undersökta populärkulturella texterna kastar nytt ljus på Campbells teori. Avhandlingen är strukturerad i enlighet med hjälteresan: Den börjar med ”The Call to Adventure” och avslutas med ”Master of the Two Worlds.” Analyserna presenteras i fristående artiklar som genom närläsning belyser hur monomyten kan användas för att förstå berättande och vice versa. I studien undersöks olika genrer och medier inom en populärkulturell sfär; litteratur för unga vuxna, actionfilm, serietidningar om superhjältar samt självbiografiskt berättande i grafiska romaner. Analyserna visar inte bara på en produktiv växelverkan mellan monomyten och de undersökta texterna, utan bidrar också till att se strukturen på ett delvis nytt sätt; nämligen som en framställning av den transitoriska rörelsen mellan två olika tillstånd hos berättelsens protagonist. I det att den gestaltar allt som hjälten går igenom, från uppbrottet ur den vardagliga hemmiljön till återvändandet i ny gestalt, representerar hjälteresan rörelsen genom olika stadier och över viktiga trösklar i livet. Genom att undersöka hur Campbells struktur yttrar sig i samtida populärkulturella texter blir det således möjligt att både utforska dess samtida relevans och att belysa den ur nya perspektiv.
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- Sadri, Houman, 1971
(författare)
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"Submission is Faith in the Strength of Others": Synthesizing Male and Female Aspects of War in Azzarello and Chiang's Wonder Woman
- 2018
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Ingår i: ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. - 1549-6732. ; 9:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s recent six-volume "Wonder Woman" run, the eponymous character is obliged to take up the mantle of the God of War after the death of Ares and in the seeming-absence of Athena, and it is only by combining the attributes of both deities that she is able to prevail in both her new role and her battle with the First Born. This synthesis has several implications, foremost of which is the idea that the embodiment of war represents a series of seeming-oxymorons, with Diana’s ultimate refusal to save the First Born from what he characterises as a fate worse than death seen as an act of, as she puts it, 'Tough Love.' This is a synthesis of violence and mercy, and as such represents the aforementioned fusion of gender aspects and is an affirmation of the original ideas of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, who believed that triumph could only be achieved within submission, an idea characterised by Diana herself as, 'Faith in the strength of others.' Finally, the trajectory of the heroic journey undertaken by central character of this set of tales hews closely to the monomythical pattern set out by Joseph Campbell in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces."
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- Sadri, Houman, 1971
(författare)
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The Super-Heroine's Journey: Comics, Gender and the Monomyth
- 2014
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Ingår i: 3rd Global Conference of the Graphic Novel, 3-5 September 2014, Mansfield College, Oxford University.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The comic book superhero is currently enjoying a period of cultural ubiquity, thanks in no small measure to the continued popularity of Monomythical narratives – which is to say texts informed by, or harking back to, the Hero’s Journey, as defined by the mythologist Joseph Campbell. This Monomyth is essentially a structural pattern common to a wide range of mythological and scriptural tales from around the world, in which an ordinary yet heroic figure leaves the comfort of home, immerses himself in the unfamiliar and extraordinary events of an outside world of which he has no real experience, fights and wins a decisive victory and, once he has done so, returns home with some essential boon or blessing. Superheroes can, to some extent, be seen as the ultimate modern exemplars of this pattern; this, though, is problematized by the relative lack of viable female heroes of this type. Using Campbell’s theories in tandem with the work of other archetypal theorists and the relatively new discipline of biocultural criticism, it is my intention to investigate whether this relative paucity – characterised by characters who are often depicted as little more than objects of titillation or fetish, not to mention tending to begin as gender reversed knock-offs of established male heroes – comes as a result of the inherently patriarchal nature of the Monomythical structure itself. Further to this, I intend to argue that while the evolution of our culture and the relative decline of patriarchal strictures have theoretically ensured that the heroic archetype has evolved to the point where traditional gender roles are no longer stable, the archetypes engendered within the Monomyth have become so ideologically paradigmatic as to hamper the imperative toward challenging these codes within the idiom of the graphic novel.
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- Sadri, Houman, 1971
(författare)
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"This One Sky Day" - How To See Light
- 2021
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Ingår i: MAI - Feminism and Visual Culture. ; :7
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Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- London used to speak to me. Miles away and long ago, before finding myself, and my one true love, before planting myself in soil I will only ever mostly understand, London smiled at me, showed me how to see light. It didn’t take much, just a small, kindly act of magic. Most places are like that, if you look carefully enough and with the right eyes. There is always light around us, so long as we have the eyes to see it.
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- Trotta, Joe, et al.
(författare)
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Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture
- 2019
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Dystopian stories and visions of the Apocalypse are nothing new; however in recent years there has been a noticeable surge in the output of this type of theme in literature, art, comic books/graphic novels, video games, TV shows, etc. The reasons for this are not exactly clear; it may partly be as a result of post 9/11 anxieties, the increasing incidence of extreme weather and/or environmental anomalies, chaotic fluctuations in the economy and the uncertain and shifting political landscape in the west in general. Investigating this highly topical and pervasive theme from interdisciplinary perspectives this volume presents various angles on the main topic through critical analyses of selected works of fiction, film, TV shows, video games and more.
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- Trotta, Joseph, 1960, et al.
(författare)
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Welcome to the Beginning of the End of Everything
- 2019
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Ingår i: Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture / edited by Joe Trotta, Zlatan Filipovic, Houman Sadri. - New York : Routledge. - 9780367235918 ; , s. 1-14
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter serves as both an introduction to "Broken Mirrors" and an overview and appraisal of depictions of apocalypses and dystopias in popular culture and literature.
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