An alternative by any other name: Alternative comics between the "mainstream" and the avant-garde,1976 to the present.
详细信息
- 作者：Singsen ; Doug.
- 学历：Ph.D.
- 年：2013
- 导师：Bishop, Claire,eadvisorMainardi, Patriciaecommittee memberDolan, Marcecommittee memberHatfield, Charlesecommittee memberMolotiu, Andreiecommittee member
- 毕业院校：City University of New York
- Department：Art History
- ISBN：9781303082528
- CBH：3561243
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：4467395
- Pages：354
文摘
"Alternative comics" is a term that describes comic books produced since the mid-1970's that occupy a space at the intersection of mass culture and the avant-garde and represent an example of what I call, following literary scholar David M. Earle, the popular avant-garde. While acknowledging the problematic nature of the avant-garde as a model, this dissertation maintains that the popular avant-garde comprises a contradictory but real set of cultural practices. Alternative comics are conventionally defined by critics and academics by the absence of superheroes and other action-oriented mainstream comics genres, but this dissertation argues that the genres and other practices of mainstream comics have in fact been integral to many of the most critically acclaimed and influential examples of alternative comics. These comics incorporate mainstream genres through the use of what I term disjunctive genre hybridity, a technique in which "undigested fragments" of different genres are combined in ways that disrupt the fictional reality or norms of these genres, a concept that, like the popular avant-garde, has applications beyond the field of comics. In addition to alternative comics, disjunctive genre hybridity has also been used by some mainstream cartoonists, demonstrating the fluid boundary between alternative and mainstream comics. Another link between them is the fact that alternative cartoonists often portray themselves or their alter egos as fans and collectors, roles that have been central to the culture of mainstream comics since the 1970's, despite the fact that alternative cartoonists see fans, including themselves, as pathetic, socially marginal figures, echoing the derogatory stereotype of the fan prevalent in popular culture. Mainstream comics also figure prominently in the history of The Comics Journal (1977-), the most important magazine of comics criticism, which is often upheld as the most prominent advocate of alternative comics, although it was originally a conventional mainstream "fanzine" (fan magazine) that focused primarily on mainstream and groundlevel comics throughout the 1970's and 1980's, alternately criticizing and praising them, and only shifted its critical focus to alternative comics in the 1990's.