The Working Class PI (AKA Jessica Jones)

Author(s):  
Terrence R. Wandtke

This chapter initially discusses the literary origins of Jessica Jones, the superheroine introduced in Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos. In the comic book series, Jones is a blue-collar hero clearly tied to hard-boiled detective fiction: a genre about and for a working class audience. This chapter then presents the way Bendis and Gaydos use Jones’ identity as a private investigator to subvert traditional superhero stories that are written with little concerns for class. In addition, Alias uses Jones’ identity as a woman to subvert the male bias of both traditional superhero stories and hard-boiled detective fiction.The resultant mix creates a meandering path for Jones: a woman’s narrative of “quiet desperation” that is largely lost in purposeful arc of its Netflix adaptation, Jessica Jones.

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Guillaume Lecomte

The comic book series La Vie secrète des jeunes is a sardonic account of French young people’s behaviours witnessed from the voyeuristic viewpoint of its author-illustrator, Riad Sattouf. Despite its caricatural and non-photorealistic visual style, the work conveys a strong sense of authenticity, mixing truth claims borrowed from established non-fiction traditions (journalism, autobiography and documentary). It is also a rare example of a non-fiction comic turned into live action. This article considers the comic and its TV adaptation, and discusses film’s ability to adapt an account of truth rooted in comics ontology. The article first provides a theoretical structure that details the intricacy of repeating the truth from comic to film. Second, it highlights the way in which the comic develops its authenticity by constantly reaffirming Sattouf’s presence and subjectivity. The article aims to show that the adaptation anonymises this viewpoint in order to re-construct the authenticity of its reality.


1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Maravall

THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTS TO DISCUSS A NUMBER OF QUESTIONS RELATED to the development of a working-class movement of dissent under non-democratic conditions. In this discussion particular attention will be given to the consequences of economic development. It is not that economic development will be considered as a cross-culturally invariant factor in the explanation of social and political conflict and dissent, but that given i) a non-democratic political context and ii) social and economic conditions allowing for working-class movements whose open manifestation is hence restricted by the political set of constraints, the effects of economic development upon such contradictory conditions, and the way they influence the pattern of development of the working-class movement will be especially considered.


2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hart

In the context of the take-over by a global corporation (Royal Doulton) of a family-owned and run pottery factory in Longton Stoke-on-Trent, known as ‘Beswick’, and the subsequent re-structuring of production, this paper explores the way in which women pottery workers make social distinctions between the ‘rough’ and ‘posh’, ‘proper paintresses’ and ‘big heads’ which cut into and across abstract sociological notions of class. Drawing on ethnographic data I show that for these working class women, class as lived is inherently ambiguous and contradictory and reveal the ways in which class is gendered. I build on historical and sociological studies of the pottery industry, and anthropological and related debates on class, as well as Frankenberg's study of a Welsh village, to develop my argument and draw analogies between factory and village at a number of levels. My findings support the view that class is best understood not as an abstract generalising category, but in the local and specific contexts of women's working lives. I was the first one in our family to go in decorating end and they thought I was a bit stuck-up. My sister was in clay end as a cup-handler and I had used to walk off factory without her, or wait for her to leave before I left, though she said, ‘If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have anything to paint!’ They were much freer in the clay end – had more to do with men – we thought we were one up. 1


Author(s):  
Magdalena Kempna-Pieniążek

DOI 10.24917/20837275.9.4.3Ubogie domostwa, rozsiane po pustkowiu przyczepy zamieszkane przez zdegenerowanych ludzi, pokryte kurzem drogi, po których poruszają się zdezelowane samochody – pejzaż indiańskiego rezerwatu we współczesnej kulturze audiowizualnej naznaczony jest świadectwami upadku. Równocześnie jednak przestrzeń, w której tak wyraziście manifestują się liczne problemy społeczne, na czele z alkoholizmem oraz bezrobociem, stanowi część dyskursów dotyczących marginalizacji, nietolerancji, alienacji i społecznej stygmatyzacji. Filmowy i komiksowy pejzaż „rezu” stanowi krzywe zwierciadło oficjalnej amerykańskiej kultury, symbolizowanej przez Mount Rushmore, w której cieniu kryje się rezerwat plemienia Lakota w Pine Ridge. Analizując wybrane przykłady filmowe oraz komiksowe, autorka ukazuje różne aspekty symboliki i kulturowych kontekstów „rezu”. Z jednej strony – w filmach takich jak Skins Chrisa Eyre’a lub Za głosem serca Michaela Apteda oraz w komiksowej serii Skalp Jasona Aarona i R.M. Guéry – mamy do czynienia z wizją rezerwatu stanowiącego krajobraz nieomalże apokaliptyczny, utożsamiający ciemną stronę Ameryki; z drugiej – w realizacjach pokroju Sygnałów dymnych Eyre’a czy Piętna przodków Michaela Linna – rezerwat jawi się jako przestrzeń mityczna, obszar kontaktu ze wcześniejszymi pokoleniami.Rez territory. Symbols and cultural contexts of Indian reservation landscape in contemporary Northern American cinema and comic booksPoor houses, trailers scattered in wilderness, inhabited by degenerated people, dusty roads full of old cars – the landscape of Indian reservation in contemporary audiovisual culture is marked with symptoms of degradation. In the same time, places where social problems – especially alcoholism and unemployment – have been so vividly manifested, become a part of various discourses of marginalization, intolerance, alienation and social stigmatization. “Rez’s” landscape in film and comic books becomes a dark mirror for the official American culture symbolized by Mount Rushmore, in whose shadow lies the Lakota Pine Ridge reservation. In her analysis of selected films and comic books, theauthor shows different aspects of rez’s symbols and cultural contexts. In such films as Chris Eyre’s Skins or Michael Apted’s Thunderheart and Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra’s comic book series Scalped, Indian reservation is shown almost as an apocalyptic territory and – in the same time – as a dark side of America. On the other hand, in Eyre’s Smoke Signals or Michael Linn’s Imprint, rez is a mythic place of cross-generation encounters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miloš Zarić

The paper analyzes the V for Vendetta comic books, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd. These volumes are graphic novels whose characteristics place them in the literary genre of the critical dystopia, but they have also been associated with the genre of the superhero comic, which, according to a number of authors including Alan Moore, is inextricably linked to the ideology and practice of the political right, which in its extreme form assumes the form of fascism. The way that fascism is treated in that work, as well as in two other comics discussed in the paper (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns), is linked to the way in which the process of creativity/innovativeness functioned in the context of the revision/deconstruction of the superhero comic book genre in the 1980s, both on the collective (intra-genre) and the individual level, on the level of the thought structure of the British writer Alan Moore. Using the structural-semiotic model of analysis, the paper seeks to fathom the logic of this deconstruction procedure "broken down" into the three comic books discussed in the paper, with particular emphasis on the analysis of V for Vendetta, with the aim of establishing its "hidden", connotative semantic dimension. The study adopts a modern view of the comic book according to which the essence of this medium, which distinguishes it from other narrative and graphic forms of expression as well as from film, can be recognized in the specific, sequential way of combining its visual and narrative components, thus generating meanings whose interpretation depends on the intention of the author but also on the view of the reader.


2021 ◽  
pp. 137-161
Author(s):  
Anna Marta Marini

In his ongoing comic book series Sonambulo, versatile artist Rafael Navarro has been able to channel his Mexican American cultural heritage by creating a unique blend of narrative genres. In his work, Navarro exploits classic American film noir as a fundamental reference and hybridizes it with elements distinctive to a shared Chicanx heritage, such as lucha libre cinema, horror folktales, and border-crossing metaphors; the construction of an oneiric dimension helps bring the narrative together, marking it with a peculiar ambiance. Drawing heavily on a diverse range of film genres, as well as ethnocultural pivots, this comic book series carves out a definite space in the panorama of the Mexican American production of popular culture, adding a powerful voice to the expression of US ethnic minorities.


Author(s):  
Heather Hamill

This chapter explains the dominant features of working-class culture. In particular, the ways in which status and prestige can be gained among the adult male population, and the fact that the hoods are excluded from these paths to power, are explored. This chapter also examines the relationships between the hoods and the influence of their friends and associates on their offending. The analysis here is framed in terms of the understandings that both the hoods and ex-hoods either have or had of their antisocial behavior. Thus studying the world of the hoods in their own terms opens the way to an increased understanding of their behavior. In the process, the data revealed that rather than being anomic the hoods do adhere to a set of norms. The challenge remains to understand the hoods' subculture and make sense of their behaviors.


Author(s):  
Karen Hunt

The chapter discusses how Labour Party women engaged with the newly-enfranchised housewife between the wars. It focuses on how Labour Woman represented the working-class housewife and the degree to which it enabled her to speak for herself. It chose everyday domestic life, traditionally assumed to be beyond politics, as the way to connect with unorganised women in their homes. In its Housewife Column the relevance of politics to women’s daily lives was explored through domestic topics such food prices, housework, washing and making clothes. Even with the increasing dominance of recipes and dress patterns in the 1930s, the journal continued to see the housewife as having agency and a distinct experience shaped by class. For Labour Woman interwar domesticity was neither cosy nor rationalised and modern, it was a space which provided the means to engage with the everyday lives of ordinary women.


Author(s):  
Nava R. Silton ◽  
Patrick Riley ◽  
Amanda Anzovino

High quality interventions, which employ an extended contact model, wherein stories, roleplaying, and other appealing informational media are used to promote more positive intergroup attitudes, tend to be effective at enhancing the attitudes, intentions, and interests of typical children toward their peers with differences. The following four studies assess the efficacy of The Realabilities comic book series and the Addy & Uno off-Broadway musical, which promote kindness, empathy, and a stop-bullying platform while teaching about disabilities and/or mental health disorders. The studies include 1) a qualitative study of 19 fourth grade students from an elementary school in Paramus, NJ, who viewed the Addy & Uno off-Broadway musical and participated in the full Realabilities educational comic book series intervention; 2) a qualitative study of 20 high school students with diverse disabilities, who participated in the full Realabilities comic book series intervention; 3) a quantitative study of 76 students from a high school in Long Island City, NY, who read the first mental health-based Realabilities comic book; and finally, 4) a quantitative study of 66 students from a high school in Long Island City, NY, who read the first and second mental-health based Realabilities comics. The researchers used a coding system to find principal themes in the qualitative data and used modified versions of the adjective checklist (ACL) and shared activities questionnaire (SAQ), along with a knowledge measure, to assess quantitative changes from pre to post-testing of the comic book series. Study findings help support the efficacy of an extended contact model and suggest that programs like these may serve as useful antidotes to counter negative attitudes of children and adolescents towards disabilities and mental health disorders, respectively.


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