26-06-2014, Amsterdam University of Amsterdam
Josephine Timmers 6059058
Master Film Studies Master thesis
Thesis supervisor: Anne Kustritz Wordcount: 20960
Super citizens:
How superheroes represent ideal American citizenship
and reproduce national rhetoric.
Index
Chapter 1: The national or global level. p. 6-7 1.1 Geopolitics: American soil versus unknown territory.p. 8-32
1.2 Geopolitics: American people and the Other. p. 32-36
1.3 The state and its institutions. p. 36-47
1.4 Genealogy. p. 47-52
Chapter 2: The subjective, personal level. p. 53-55
2.1 Gender roles. p. 55-62
2.2 The body. p. 62-73
2.3 Villains p. 73-79
Conclusion. p. 80-84
Literature list. p. 85-94
This thesis investigates the relationship between nationalism, popular culture, and the everyday experience, through the analysis of superhero films. Nationalism is scaled from the national, or global, to the local, or personal, and this thesis explores how these separate layers all work together to reproduce ideal citizenship. Superheroes can represent an ideal embodied citizenship and transmit what that entails. This thesis
starts out with an analysis the national level at with nationalism is at work. Similarities between America’s post 9/11 rhetoric and the geopolitical rhetoric of these superhero narratives show that national rhetoric is reproduced and sustained by these films. It also explores the relationship between the state and its institutions, superheroes and citizenship and the importance of genealogy for the nation. This second part of this thesis investigates the subjective or personal level at which nationalism is at work and reinforced through these films, showing how nationalism is at work on a gendered, physical, and mental level as well in these films and how they reproduce national rhetoric. Key words: popular culture, superheroes, American nationalism, post 9/11
(geo)politics, citizenship, identity, gender.
Since 1938 superheroes have played an important role in American Popular Culture. Superman was created in periods of social, political and economical despair they proved vital fantasies that boosted the people’s trust in the nation. As Anne Kustritz described, Superman was a hero willing to fight for truth, justice and the “American way” (2005). Superman was not just an entertaining figure, created to restore hope and to help the people escape from the current national struggles, he was a role model for American citizenship. A role model and agent for ‘good’ citizenship, because he decided what deeds were deemed immoral by punishing the immoral and the bad and he praising or saved the good Samaritans. This creates a clear boundary between good citizenship and bad citizenship. Who is considered to be part of society and who is considered to be an outsider?
One interesting aspect of the superhero genre is that their motives, personal struggles and enemies are subject to change. As argued by Kustritz, there are always strong parallels between the fictional confrontations in superhero stories and contemporary political struggles (2005). This suggests that superheroes mirror what is at stake for the nation in a specific historical period. It must be said that this does not always mean that the (dominant) national ideal is addressed in such stories; they can also function as a critique of the national politics. There are always ‘anti-superheroes’ such as The Watchmen (1986/1987), who have no clear opinion on right or wrong or good citizenship and who, as superheroes, struggle with their own morals and values. Rami Fawaz explains that popular fantasy can have the ability to engage with (or even
change) the existing social and political relations of the real world, by describing new relations in their fictional stories (2011). Fawaz uses the X-Men comics of
the mid-1970s to show their progressive stance towards the New-Left, Feminist, Anti-Discrimination movements of that time, by creating mutants that were not simply identifiable by biological bodies or racial/gender boundaries, but who transcended the existing dichotomies that were rejected by these movements (2011).
This thesis will focus on representations of the most popular and persistent superheroes, in order to look at how nationalism is reproduced in such films and how they represent ideal citizenship. The national is a powerful constituent of identity, because it is grounded in the popular and the everyday, Tim Edensor explains (2002). Therefore Edensor states that culture is a constant process of becoming, of merging out of the dynamism of popular culture and everyday life (2002). He also points to the difficulty of defining the everyday, because it seems to be too apparent or it is taken for granted through unreflexive identifications (2002). The national reproduces and constitutes itself through these unreflexive identifications.
Because of this strong link between society, its popular culture, and the nation, superheroes prove to be vital study objects for analyzing national ideology and how national identity is constructed. Superheroes can point to current misconceptions or political wrongs, but foremost they embody or point to an ideal national identity, whether they achieve this through personal
struggles or whether they are portrayed as the immediate embodiment/national icon of the national ideology. The most obvious examples of this direct
embodiment or perfect compliance of the American ideal would be Superman, as ideal immigrant from planet Krypton, or Captain America. Captain America’s profile as the super-soldier is the symbol of ‘national identity, thus rescaling the vast abstract collective of the nation and rendering it tangible and knowable in the form of a single person’ Jason Dittmer argues (2009, p. 136). The everyday is dynamic, an identity, which is constantly reproduced, Edensor explains (2002). Superheroes can be important symbols and guides through this process of reproducing national identity, because they are one of the most prominent forms of popular culture and their stories are drenched with national symbolism and ideology.
The chosen corpus consists of a combination of top grossing American superhero films and the overall popularity of particular superheroes of the past decade. How often have they (re)appeared in solo or ensembles in the pas ten years and how perseverant are they as popular, national icons? An exception is made for Catwoman (dir. Pitof, 2004) and Elektra (dir. Rob Bowman, 2005), because they are the only American female heroine solo films of the past decade. A central focus of the second chapter is on gender and the body, which makes those two films essential for this thesis, even though they were not top grossing nor the most popular superhero icons of the past decade. (Which in itself might be telling enough of current gender hierarchy.) This selection contains a
combination of solo male superheroes, ensembles, female heroines, and less conventional superheroes (such as the X-Men or the Hulk), who can represent the society as a whole.
On alphabetical order: The Amazing Spiderman (dir. Marc Webb, 2012),
The Avengers (dir. Joss Whedon, 2013), Batman Begins (dir. Christopher Nolan,
2005), The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008), The Dark Knight Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012), Captain America: The First Avenger (dir. Joe Johnston, 2011), Catwoman (dir. Pitof, 2004), Elektra (dir. Rob Bowman, 2005), The
Fantastic Four (dir. Tim Story, 2005), The Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
(dir. Tim Story, 2007), The Incredible Hulk (dir. Louis Leterrier, 2008), Iron Man 1 (dir. Jon Favreau, 2006), Iron Man 2 (dir. Jon Favreau, 2008), Iron Man 3 (dir. Shane Black, 2013), Man of Steel (dir. Zack Snyder, 2013), Spiderman 2 (dir. Sam Raimi, 2004), Spiderman 3 (dir. Sam Raimi, 2007), Superman Returns (dir. Bryan Singer, 2006), Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2011), Thor: The Dark World (dir. Alan Taylor, 2013), X-Men First Class (dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2011), X-Men Origins:
Wolverine (dir. Gavin Hood, 2009), X-Men The Last Stand (dir. Brett Ratner, 2006), The Wolverine (dir. James Mangold, 2013).
The first chapter will address the national or global aspects of nationalism employed in these films. Post 9/11 geopolitics and how frames of recognition are formed through geopolitics will be a main aspect of this chapter. A lot of the post 9/11 rhetoric is reproduced by these films and therefore reinforced as essential to American history. Jason Dittmer and Simon Dalby’s analysis of the post 9/11
rhetoric and America’s exceptionalism will be key in these sections. Aspects such as arena (the portrayal of the nation and its spatial socialization), politics, the state and its institutions, the citizens, the function of the superheroes and their relation to the nation and genealogy will also be addressed. Jörn Ahrens and Arno Meteling’s analysis of the cities used in comic books are a good reference point to analyze the use of cities and other spaces in these films. Lauren Berlant, Anssi Paasi and Edensor’s notions of territorial and national symbols (or icons) will be used to analyze how the films symbolize the nation and how its spatial organization is used to indicate who is in and who is out. Gramsci’s notion on hegemony, intellectuals and the state and Foucault’s notion of power, knowledge, and surveillance as disciplinary forms of power, provide basic guidelines to analyze how nations are (re)produced and maintained and how national structures are imposed upon people. Edensor and Berlant make interesting statements on how gender and reproduction is incorporated in national symbolism and citizenship. Their views will help to lay bare the importance of genealogy represented in these stories. Reproduction is one of the most basic fundamentals of a nation and can therefore not be overlooked. An analysis of reproduction shows how citizens are guided to invest in the nation and to protect it, because protecting and providing for ones family is often seen as the most natural and basic thing to do.
The second chapter is about the subjective or personal level on which nationalism functions: the construction of the embodied citizen. It contains a more close analysis of the construction of ideal versus deviant masculinity and femininity and the construction of controlling discourses on bodies. As Berlant rightly pointed out: ‘There is a crucial interface between the state and the person as affectively invested and experienced’ (1991: p. 13). This suggests an absolute necessity for affective and embodied citizenship for the nation to be able to reproduce itself. The national and the local, or even personal level are
intertwined in a complex network or matrix that constructs and maintains the nation. Biological reproduction is essential to the nation’s survival and this causes a close link between different gender roles. Women are often seen as carrier of the nation, or the collective, and should therefore be protected. Men should be strong and vital, able to protect the weak. This section will also
investigate what consequences the link between the nation and reproduction has. Mary Douglas’ descriptions of social ‘pollution’ in her book Purity and
Danger helps to indicate which citizens are considered to fit the national ideal
and who seems to deviate from that ideal. Most of these superhero narratives conform to the dominant cultural model, which Judith Halberstam would call ‘heteronormative maturity’ and which exists of the adult expectations of
marriage and children (2005). Using Judith Butler’s notion of performativity, the ‘normality’ of gender behaviour can be indicated as always a construction rather than natural or cultural effect, and what deviates from it according to these national iconic films. These theories will help to indicate how popular culture reproduces the dominant cultural model in America and how it is linked to nationalism, thereby reinforcing the bond between the nation, popular culture and the everyday experience of its citizens.
Chapter 1: The National or global level.
This chapter discusses the shaping of ideal citizenship and national identity on a national or global level. Nationalism is at work on many levels at the same time. According to Edensor, national culture is constantly a process of becoming, of
emerging out of the dynamisms of popular culture and everyday life, whereby people (re)make connections between the local and the national, the national and the global, and everyday life and the extraordinary (2002). Thus according to Edensor, nationalism is scaled from the local to the national; ‘they are meshed together to constitute the nation’ (2002: p. 21).
The first two sections focus on how American geopolitics is reproduced in these films. The first section analyzes how national geopolitics is employed in these films to mark which territory belongs to the nation and which territory is opposed to it. This section will also analyze how national, iconic symbols are inserted and exploited to enhance national sentiments and unity, thereby reinforcing a link between these films and nationalism. The second section will focus on who is included or excluded from (national) citizenship and analyze how the Other is represented through frames of recognition. The films show how a sense of collectivity and belonging to the nation is created on a national and global level. It also shows how post 9/11 rhetoric is deployed in many of these films and helps to sustain national geopolitics, reproducing images that refer to (post) 9/11 trauma, images that mark the American nation, and images that help to sustain stereotypical conceptions of other countries and cultures (in order to clearly mark them as Other). These analyses help to develop the main argument of this chapter: that these national, collective, potentially abstract aspects of the nation are very powerful at a personal level of identity formation. This chapter explains how larger aspects of the nation are also incorporated in the formation process of national identity.
The next section analyzes the relationship between the state and its institutions, citizenship, and the superheroes. Superheroes are often examples of ideal citizenship, with their morals and values, their patriotism, their desire to protect the community, and their established position within society. Still superheroes can also have a complicated relationship with the nation-state and its institutions. A possible reason why superheroes often have a complicated relationship with society is because of their ‘unlabel-ability’ or unrecognizability, as Judith Butler would say (2009). Citizenship and the nation is defined and protected by what is known or included and likewise by what is unknown or different and expelled from the nation. Superheroes are outside of the
(traditional) boundaries and markers of normal citizens and rights. They protect their country and its citizens, but they do not fight for the national institutions, nor are they bound by the American state institutions and its rules. This makes them ‘slippery’ and uncontrollable for the nation and its institutions, but even though a superhero’s relationship with the state and its institutions is often complicated, most of these films reinforce the idea that state control is necessary for the balance of society. Too much power for one individual can be a threat to the whole of society and must therefore be prevented. A lot of these narratives are about such preventions and superheroes often work together with the state and its institutions in order to protect that balance. This demonstrates a link between superheroes and the sustenance of control through the state and its institutions.
The final section of this chapter analyzes the importance of genealogy or parentage. Good citizens are created through good upbringing, which therefore is an essential aspect of reproducing ideal national citizenship. Many of these films emphasize the connection between superheroes as ideal examples of good citizenship and their upbringing or descent. This reinforces the importance of reproduction and kinship as essential building block for the nation.
As Edensor pointed out, the nation is reproduced in differently scaled ways: from state-sanctioned ceremony and popular culture, to the quotidian, unreflective acts by which people inscribe themselves in place (2002). The relationship between these different levels, show how they all influence each other and contribute to the sustaining of ideal national citizenship. This chapter will focus on the national, global and collective level wherein nationalism is reproduced in superhero films, demonstrating how nationalism is rooted in the everyday aspects of life and popular culture.
1.1 Geopolitics: American soil versus unknown territory.
This section discusses America’s post 9/11 rhetoric on a geopolitical level. As Jason Dittmer argues, ‘popular geopolitics is the construction of scripts that mold common perceptions of political events’ (2005: p. 626). Dittmer also explains that states (or nations), as institutionalized regions, are best understood as an
ongoing process of creating and maintaining territorial practices and ideologies (2005). According to Simon Dalby, this is a hierarchical process wherein
important and less important places are defined and marked (2003). Anssi Paasi, cited by Dittmer, argues that an important aspect of the region-formation process is the attachment of symbolic meanings to territory, or the creation of symbolic shape (or space) (2005). Spatial socialization, Paasi posits, is the process by which people are socialized as members of territorial groups (2005). This is the process of making places, such as buildings, landscapes, or sites, important for people and recognizable as a space they know, a space that (territorially) belongs to their nation, and thereby to them as well, as citizens of that nation.
Geopolitics is not just about creating spatial hierarchy or recognizable sites that symbolize the nation; it functions on a personal level as well. According to Dalby, geopolitics construct popular identities, citizenship, and mundane, daily practices (2003). Dittmer also stresses the importance of popular culture.
According to him popular culture leads to the internalization of the mythic and symbolic aspects of national identities (2005). This suggests that popular culture is a means for people to understand their personal identity, their collective (national) identity, and their (national) position on a broader geopolitical scale. Dittmer explains that structures of expectations influence how people from a region interpret new information or situations and geopolitical scripts are interpreted through the lens of such structures (2005). These structures of expectations influence people on an individual level and they create a sense of collective belonging to a nation.
This section demonstrates how post 9/11 political rhetoric is represented in these films and how national iconic symbols function to create a sense of (spatial) unity and belonging. Superhero films deploy 9/11 rhetorics by creating clear boundaries of what is American territory and what is not, who is with the American people and who is against it, but also by representing battles, that are visually and ideologically similar to the attacks on 9/11 and the post 9/11 geopolitical rhetoric of the Bush administration. This way, these superhero narratives reproduce national rhetoric through their battles and their arena.
Kustritz explains the post 09/11 rhetoric as one of constant danger posed by hidden enemies and potentially deceitful allies, who threaten the very heart of
America (2005). She also points out that, after the 9/11 attacks, terrorism was often linked to a desire for the complete destruction of the American way of life, America itself and America’s future (2005). The American post 9/11 rhetoric employs a strong notion of who is ‘with them’ or ‘against them’, which responds to the fear of the nation for terrorism. This sense of ‘with us’ or ‘against us’ becomes politically effective through ‘frames of recognition’, as Butler would call them (2009). Frames of recognition create a certain notion of personhood or nationhood that determines the scope and meaning of recognizability. Through recognizability, Butler explains, a normative ideal is installed, which is used as a pre-existent condition for the analysis of others (2009). Such a frame or norm of recognizability operates to produce certain subjects or territories as
recognizable and others as less recognizable as human subjects, who deserve protection and whose lives are grievable if they would die. These frames are often used in times of war, to render other populations as ‘ungrievable’ or already lost, Butler explains (2009). In order to maintain a straight ‘with us’ or ‘against us’ policy, it must become very clear who is recognizable as grievable human subject and who is not.
Superhero films prove vital examples for analysis of such frames of recognition and how they function to create sentiments towards certain
characters and territories and less for others. This post 9/11 geopolitical rhetoric shows how perceptions of events are framed and how people’s national
sentiments and attitude towards the world are shaped likewise through
(geo)politics, iconic symbols and collective memories. Superhero films often use these existing wounds or memories to create immediate emotional effect on its (American) audience.
Iron Man (dir. Jon Favreau, 2008) is a good example of how geopolitics
work, how recognizability of territory and iconic, national symbols are used to create a sense of belonging, and how likewise unrecognizability is used to show what is (geographically and culturally) not like America. Tony Stark is abducted at the beginning of the film, while visiting the American army in Afghanistan to demonstrate and sell his newest weapons. This landscape is marked by sand, dust and nothingness surrounding the military base. During a ride with
American soldiers, they are ambushed and bombed. Tony Stark gets hit and the next moment he wakes up in an unrecognizable environment in a dungeon in a mountain. Doctor Yinsen, a fellow hostage, has saved his life by placing a metal construct in his chest to keep the shrapnel from going straight through his heart. His abductors then record a video of him in which they speak Arabic. It is unclear what they want and from who, but this video strongly resembles former Al’Qaida footage of terrorists taking American soldiers hostage and torturing them (img. 1). Its recognizability as such inevitably incites strong emotions amongst the (American) audience.
After this scene there is a lapse back in time, 36 hours earlier in Las Vegas, where Tony Stark is supposed to pick up his APOGEE Award for design and engineering excellence. This territory is very differently represented than the space in Afghanistan. Western luxury, decent people in suits or fancy dresses, sipping their champagne and indulging the service offered to them by one of the top Las Vegas casinos, Caesar’s Palace, symbolize American territory. Stark is introduced on a big screen as: “Tony Stark, visionary, genius, American Patriot. […] Today Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe.” An image of the cover of the famous Rolling Stone magazine slides by: ‘Tony Stark wants to save the world’. The striking similarities between the post 09/11 political
rhetoric and the war against The Taliban, an operation called ‘Enduring Freedom’, and Tony Stark represented as an American patriot ‘ensuring freedom’ cannot be overlooked.
Moreover, the contrast between the two worlds could not have been more absolute. In Afghanistan the displayed territory is a military base in the middle of nowhere as signified by the surrounding featureless sand and mountains (img. 2). No people or houses are in sight and after Stark is abducted they are in an even more unidentifiable environment. It is a huge cave in a mountain, with many small, dark, tunnels, comprising a dark maze, impossible to navigate or establish ones position. “I am sure they are looking for you, but they will never find you in these mountains,” says Doctor Yinsen. The scene in Las Vegas is full of recognizable sites and attributes that mark Las Vegas and America. Iconic
symbols and signs of one of the most recognizable casinos of Las Vegas are all over the place. Tony Stark is gambling in the casino, carelessly throwing big amounts of money on table, which emphasizes his wealth (img. 3).
The distinction between foreign, Afghan territory and American territory shows how geopolitics and its framing of territory works. There is a feeling of alienation and estrangement whenever there are scenes that take place in Afghanistan throughout the film, because it is depicted as a hopeless no-man’s land, and not at all developed. Except for a few small, half abandoned villages, where simple and poor farmer people live, there is sand and mountains. The land is marked by drought and isolation: no plants, no water, just brown and grey environment (img. 4). Even the people who inhabit the space wear nothing but grey and brown colored clothes, as if they are shadows of real people (img. 5).
America, on the other hand, is depicted as a prosperous country, that is way ahead of Afghanistan when it comes to civilization and technological developments. Recognizable national symbols and sites, such as the casino, the magazines with depictions of Tony Stark, wealth, and culturally recognizable food such as a cheeseburger or pizza, represent American territory (img. 6). This emphasizes America’s capitalistic, consumer culture, because consumption goods or leisure activities that depend on spending money, such as gambling in the casino, represent American territory.
This example shows how important the production and consumption of popular culture is to create or emphasize these iconic symbols or sites that mark the nation, Dittmer explains (2005). Without popular culture, these symbols would not have been so recognizable as authentically American. These elements are what Dittmer would call the mythic and symbolic aspects of national identity, which leads to the internalization of such aspects on a personal level of national identity formation (2005). This recognizability of the American nation in
contrast to the unrecognizability of Afghanistan makes it hard for the viewer to identify Afghanistan other than by sand and mountains, by the terrorists who plague the nation, and by the helpless lower-class citizens who are threatened by them. It is therefore much harder to get emotionally involved with Afghanistan
and very easy to get engaged with American territory and this shows how geopolitics functions on a personal level, where it creates affiliations with American territory and culture and marks Afghanistan as the unknown other.
Another film that strongly relies on national, iconic symbols and post 9/11 trauma is The Avengers (dir. Joss Whedon, 2012). The climax of the film is situated in the centre of New York, relying on recognizable buildings and signs, but also the post 09/11 anxiety of terrorist attacks in the heart of New York. The
Avengers represents the trauma of enemies in the heart of America, as Loki,
attacks the city. Loki, Thor’s adoptive brother, was raised with Thor in Asgard, a futuristic city elsewhere in space. Always feeling less appreciated by his adoption father, Thor’s real father, Loki anxiously strives for acknowledgement and power. This time his mission is set out for planet earth, where he attacks the city with an alien army in order to rule the world. As the Avengers fight with the aliens that come from a hole in the sky, created by an enormous energy source, called the ‘Tesseract,’ iconic symbols, places and buildings are used to heighten a sense of national belonging for all Americans and to invoke typical post 9/11 sentiments of the need to protect the homeland. The fact that this is another aerial attack on the core of New York strongly resonates the post 9/11 anxieties of security borders being breached and the media images of the actual attack and the images of the war in this film show clear visual resemblances (img. 7).
Iconic buildings and sites are used to heighten a sense of patriotism for the American audience. For example: as The Hulk and Thor fight an enormous alien monster, they crash right through the main hall of Grand Central Station. Thor also uses the Chrysler Building as personal transmitter for his thunderbolts, emphasizing its iconic function and strength as symbol for New York City (img. 8). Famous street names, such as Wall Street, and other buildings such as 40th
Wall Street, or the Empire State Building make the arena easily recognizable. Edensor talks about these places as symbolic sites that one can see as stage, on which identity is dramatized, transmitted, shared and reproduced (2002). Nationalism is reproduced through these iconic, national symbols the film uses. Lauren Berlant would call these symbols ‘the National Symbolic’. She argues that people are bound together, because they inhabit the political space of the nation
that is not merely juridical, territorial, genetic, linguistic or experiential, but a tangled cluster of these (1991). The national symbolic sutures the body and subjectivity to the public sphere of discourse, time, and space that constitutes the ‘objective’ official political reality of the nation and thereby creating a sense of almost physical vulnerability if the national symbolic would be affected, Berlant states (1991).
Berlant’s statements affirm that these geopolitical aspects are crucial for identity formation and that their effects are at work on a personal, even physical, level. It is part of the process of the embodiment of national citizenship. The sentiment and recognition these places establish encourage people’s patriotic feelings and compassion with the Avengers as they try to save their beloved homeland, but The Avengers is definitely not the only film that uses such iconic or symbolical buildings to represent the nation and reinforce sentiments of
collectivity and patriotism. For example: in the final scene of superhero film The
Fantastic Four (dir. Tom Story, 2005) Johnny Storm flies in the sky and leaves a
fire sign: four. It is shown in an establishing shot of the city, with the Statue of Liberty at the foreground of the image (img. 9). Hereby the Fantastic Four is directly linked to the city, as its protectors and this statue has particularly strong nationalistic notions attached to it. The Statue of Liberty, Berlant argues, was an opportunity for the self-styled masses (all the new immigrants and working class people) to take ownership of the symbolic material of national fantasy (1991). She also states that the statue was a symbol for the people’s spiritual obligations that the mass owed to ‘the lady’ of the country and her indestructible body symbolized the unity of the national identity (1991). This way one’s cultural descent is not important anymore, whenever the American people look at the statue, they feel part of the American community. These iconic buildings are cultural symbols, Edensor explains: ideas about their import may be shared, but they can be claimed by a multitude of different identities for various purposes (2002). That is why they are powerful unifying symbols: people recognize them and acknowledge them, even though their personal affiliations may (and indeed do) vary. Those symbols are used to create unity amongst the citizens of a nation. The image of Johnny Storm in the sky with the statue emphasizes the idea that the Statue of Liberty represents the nation and he, as a good citizen, owes it to
her to protect the nation, its citizens and the hope she represents. These examples indicate how iconic and symbolic sites or buildings are used to represent the nation and how their reproduction in popular culture reinforces nationalistic sentiments and a sense of unity.
In The Avengers, another symbol is placed in New York City: Stark Towers, Stark’s newest development for green energy in the future. Loki places the ‘Tesseract’ on top of his building, making Stark Tower the centre of the war he starts and opposing his dangerous energy source to the green energy source of Tony Stark’s building (img. 7). This emphasizes Stark as an exceptional good, moral citizen, who tries to improve the world and let the people of America benefit from his inventions. The placement of the ‘Tesseract’ on Stark Tower also confirms that capitalism is dominant in American culture, because Stark is the ultimate businessman and an example of perfect capitalism, as demonstrated in the earlier Iron Man films. All his business endeavors are successful and he uses his power and inventions to improve the world. The fact that Loki considers this the central space in New York, where he needs to put the ‘Tesseract’ and unleash his alien army, reaffirms Stark’s importance in the city and it reinforces
capitalism as central to American culture, since it is Stark’s flourishing business which is the centre of the action.
Both The Avengers and Iron Man reproduce elements of the post 09/11 rhetoric. They employ a strong notion of who is ‘with them’ or ‘against them’ and they respond to the nation’s fear of terrorism. Especially The Avengers employs the post 9/11 rhetoric of America as innocent victim of a brutal attack, an attack against freedom. At the beginning, when Loki comes out of the ‘Tesseract,’ located in NASA, Nick Fury tries to deescalate the situation, by saying: “This does not have to get any messier […] We have no quarrel with your people!” Loki replies: “Of course it does, I have not come for anything else. […] I come from a world freed from freedom. Once you accept that in your heart you will know peace.” These statements show a strong resemblance with the post 9/11 rhetoric of an innocent America, that only acts in a defensive mode and out of protection for the freedom of its citizens, which gets violated by a brutal attacker. It also coincides with the notion that the attacks of 9/11 were an attack against the American way
of life. Loki comes to what America stands for: its civil liberties and democracy, since he wants to take their freedom. This example shows how political rhetoric is applied in these films and how they help to sustain American geopolitics, dominant notions of what defines the American nation, and what or who is ideologically opposed to it.
Both films create clear distinctions between the heroes and the evildoers and use frames of recognizability to create such a distinction. In The Avengers this distinction is very clear. The aliens, looking like monsters are completely outside of human frames of recognizability, and the superheroes, human (enough) to recognize and comprehend, become grievable souls because they fight for the American nation. This ‘with us’ or ‘against us’ policy is very apparent when Loki comes down to earth for the first time; as mentioned above, Nick Fury, the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. special peace force, tries to stop the situation from escalating, but Loki has no intentions to stop his quest of winning over planet earth. He shoots Nick Fury and flees with the ‘Tesseract’ and a few people whose minds he has poisoned with his spear from outer space. Nick Fury, wounded at the NASA complex, communicates with agent Phil Coulson, from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency: “The ‘Tesseract’ is with a hostile force… I have men down. […] This is a level seven. As from right now we are at war!” There is no grey area, because Loki is not with the American people, he is at war against them. This resembles the strong ‘with us’ or ‘against us’ post 9/11 rhetoric.
This short dialogue also clearly resembles the post 09/11 defense politics of the Bush administration: in order to defend their country and freedom these threatening, oppressive forces (the Taliban) had to be fought by war. The attacks of 9/11 were immediately marked as a ‘new’ war against America. Dalby rightly points out that there were other geopolitical scripts possible to describe this attack: it could have been a sick and insane action, instead of immediately being interpreted as war against America, especially since no one had declared war on America (2003). This shows how geopolitical scripts are chosen, how they frame people’s understanding of a situation, and how those geopolitical scripts are reproduced in popular culture. Dalby explains that the attacks were depicted as an inexplicable act of violence toward America: they were considered a
Fury’s response to Loki’s attack resembles the post 9/11 rhetoric. He
immediately states that, from now on, they are at war. Loki’s actions could have easily been described as a sick or mad deed done by a man that had to be stopped, but just like former President Bush interpreted the attacks as an immediate war on America, so does Nick Fury interpret Loki’s deed as a war against the freedom of humanity. The fact that this war declaration is considered an emergency means, necessary to protect the nation, not as an offensive
strategy, resembles post 9/11 rhetorical construction of aggression as a mere defensive need to protect the homeland and protect the people’s right to freedom.
The fact that Loki wants to brainwash the people of America and steal their freedom from them, resembles the ideological aspects that were considered at stake when 9/11 happened. The choice to frame the attacks as a war against democracy can have great implications for how people respond to these attacks and the resemblance between Nicky Fury’s war declaration, the arena where this war takes place, and post 9/11 political rhetoric shows the link between politics and popular culture. In this case, popular culture helps to sustain dominant geopolitical frames and it heightens a sense of national belonging, by its recognizable American symbols and ideology.
Many of these films use images that show clear similarities with media images that were predominant during and after the 9/11 attacks. For example, during the climax of the war in New York City, in The Avengers, there are several hand-held shots of heroic fire fighters and policemen, getting ‘the citizens’, which they are called all the time by the Avengers, out of the buildings that are
collapsing (img. 10 and 11). The similarity between the heroic firemen and police officers that gave their lives to evacuate the civilians of New York City on 09/11 is striking. Dalby states that the fire fighters and rescue workers were predominant visual themes in the news images of 9/11 (2003). They became symbols for courage and patriotism: the heroes who fought for their country and the people. The fact that this film reproduces these images indicates the link between nationalism, popular culture and the everyday experience.
Mark Seltzer, cited by Judith Halberstam, also argues that American society is a ‘wound culture’ (2005). Seltzer explains that a wound culture is a society so preoccupied with senses of violence and violation that trauma has become an effect in a search of a cause (2005). Fear of terrorism, national security breaches, a sense of insecurity, traumatic collective memories and popular culture’s reproduction of these tropes demonstrate this ‘wound culture’. Dalby rightly points out that for post 9/11 America the images of large, burning and collapsing buildings are now indelibly linked to sentiments of insecurity (2003). Therefore it is no coincidence that many fights in these superhero films center around large, collapsing buildings (img. 12). This indicates how such a ‘wound culture’ is sustained through the reproduction of such collective memories.
Halberstam also stresses the political function of (collective)
remembering. She states that, if some memories are motivated by an idealizing and sentimental desire to elevate events or characters to iconic states, other memories are motivated by the anxious need to protect a fragile status quo (2005). Halberstam also quotes Anne Carson, who states that ‘once memory is thought, it can be commodified’ (2005). Both ideas emphasize the importance of remembering and how memories are turned into things that have actual effects in the world. They determine whom people empathize with, what events or things represent their national culture, which historical events must be eternalized as collective trauma or celebrated through the process of
remembering. Their reproduction in the media and in popular culture affirms their importance and establishes them as collective trauma or memory (img. 12 and 13). The reproduction of 9/11 images and political rhetoric in superhero films shows that these films are a means through which nationalist sentiments and patriotism are reproduced and through which they become effective. The effect is a very recognizable frame for the American audience and a heightened sense of nationalism and collective identity because of that reaffirmation through popular culture.
Another important aspect of geopolitics is the locations where most battles take place in these films. As the previous examples indicate locations can
create a heightened sense of dislocation and estrangement or a heightened sense of belonging and patriotism. In The Avengers, Loki chooses New York as the starting point of his war over the world and thereby Loki presupposes that New York City (or America as a whole) is the centre of the world: his necessary starting point in order to accomplish world domination. As Dalby states,
geopolitics is a hierarchical process wherein territory is ranked from important to less important (2003). Post 9/11 rhetoric often framed the attacks as a global threat, while it was less clear what made them global threats as opposed to threats to specific facets of American life, Dalby explains (2003). The centrality of New York, or another American city, as the place where global threats initiate, reinforces the idea of America’s threats equalized as world threats.
In Captain America: The First Avenger (dir. Joe Johnston, 2011) this is also apparent. The narrative develops around the Second World War and Doctor Schmidt, a Doctor who worked for Hitler to develop weapons for him, is
threatening the world. Schmidt wants to take over the world himself and secretly plots his plan to personally take over the world. Schmidt plans to bomb the parts of the world that are fighting his forces, the Allied Powers, and his mission will begin in New York City (which is also written on a gigantic bomb he carries in his plane) (img. 14). In Superman Returns (dir. Bryan Singer, 2006) Superman’s enemy, Lex Luthor, threatens to create a new Krypton-like planet in order to make the world dependent on his Krypton energy source. There is a map of the world visible on screen as he explains his master plan: he intends to blow up a part of America and create a new world. It seems as though only America is under direct threat for Luthor’s world domination and yet Luthor’s plan is represented as a global threat. These examples indicate how geopolitics functions to create a hierarchy of spaces and how post 9/11 rhetoric is employed: American threats are represented as global threats.
An important territory that is used as a national symbolical space or arena in almost every film is a typically recognizable city. Edensor mentions Weber’s theory that the nation-state should be considered as a performative body, particularly in its institutionalizing effects (2002). Therefore Edensor sees symbolic spaces as stages on which performances are given (2002). A symbolic
space can be anything, from an iconic building to a complete city and what symbolizes it. These re-enacted performances inscribe who belongs to that space and who does not, Edensor explains (2002). He argues that those symbolic spaces are often part of larger identities, which are situated in wider, symbolic, imagined geographies (2002). The city is an important symbolic space, because it is so overtly marked as capitalistic and Western, which are dominant traits in American culture.
Nearly every American superhero film uses a recognizable American city as its arena, because it functions as a recognizable frame. The city, as Ahrens and Meteling point out, is often a projected image of utopian order in the form of urban, technological and economic prosperity, but it can also represent indomitable chaos, a repository of fragmented histories, which, in their
synchronicity, produce an overload of sense perceptions, founded on both law and human violence (2010). Ahrens and Meteling state that ‘urban space appears both as a wilderness of incompatible, ambiguous signs and as the promise of their ordering’ (2010: p. 12). The portrayal of the city relies strongly on national, iconic symbols. As the examples mentioned above show, iconic, symbolic
buildings or street names are often employed to create a recognizable frame for the audience and there are more examples of things that symbolize New York, or American city space in general, such as busy streets with traffic jams and
billboards in Spiderman. In these streets yellow cabs take a prominent place. There are always multiple yellow cabs whenever a street is in sight and the very recognizable New York Police Department blue and white police cars often accompany the cabs. The subway is also frequently used as a place that marks the city. Like The Avengers shows, people flee into the subway station when they are being attacked by the alien army. The recurrence of these spaces mark them as symbols that represent the city. These buildings symbolize the city and the use of these national iconic symbols in these films help to enable recognition and affect with the spaces.
The process of recognition works both for positive affiliations and
negative affiliations with spaces and symbols. Villains often inhabit less desirable places. According to Mary Douglas, the ideal order of society is guarded through
notions of danger or pollution, which transgressors could violate (2008). Taboo, pollution or danger signify order from disorder, being to non-being, form to formlessness, and life to death, she explains (2008). The spaces villains inhabit often signify spaces of danger, pollution or taboo, which reinforces a distinction between them and the good people. In Spiderman 2 (dir. Sam Raimi, 2004) Otto Octavius, a scientist whose experiment fails, leaving him in the hands of four robot arms that control his mind, lives in an abandoned storage house on the other side of the water. The house is in bad shape and stands in bright contrast to the strong and high buildings that fill up the background and mark New York. Here the difference in urban space is used to create a distance between Otto and the city. The audience’s loyalty probably lies with the recognizable site of New York and thereby recognizable urban space helps to create a breach between Otto and the audience.
In The Amazing Spiderman (dir. Marc Webb, 2012) Doctor Curt Connors, the villain, becomes a lizard man, because he injects his self-developed healing serum that is built upon the genetic construction of a lizard that can grow back his own tail. After his transformation he starts to live in the sewer of New York City, where he creates an underground lab, to be able to produces more of his genetically transforming serum (img. 15). This location not only suits his scaly transformation, but the taboo or pollution connotations the location evoke help to separate him from the city above and the people who inhabit that space. At the same time, the knowledge that the sewer leads to everywhere in the city, makes him a threat to the whole community. Thus, many films use urban spaces versus non-urban spaces or urban spaces with bad connotations to mark a distinction between the superheroes and villains.
The use of certain urban symbolic spaces in these films symbolizes the hierarchical ordering of community, by marking some spaces and its inhabitants as essentially part of that community and others as not. Community, as
Halberstam explains, is a generalized model of many individuals rather than a complex interactive model of space, embodiment, locality and desire (2005). Or, as Edensor would put it, each space has a different performance (2002). For example, there are the good people like uncle Ben and aunt May in the suburb. They behave according the dominant community model and are recognized as
morally good people. Whenever Spiderman strolls the streets of the city centre at night he encounters robbers, rude, self-centered people, people who are sketchy or out to fight and the villain of this film inhabits the sewer of the city. This suggests that symbolically important urban spaces can inhabit multiple meanings and it also shows how spaces are linked to the community and how they indicate who fits the dominant community model and who does not.
A good example of the different uses of urban space comes from two different Spiderman films. In Spiderman 2 there is a scene where Otto and Spiderman fight on a subway during the day. Otto uses the people to fight Spiderman, by throwing them off the train and forcing Spiderman to save them. Otto dismantles the brakes of the train, forcing Spiderman to put all his effort and energy in stopping the train from falling with all the people in it. This time the people in the train represent the image of a multicultural society in America. Old people, young people, people with different ethnicities and a mother with a baby are on the train. After Peter stops the train just in time, before falling of the end of the railway, he collapses and he would have fallen down if the people did not reach out from the broken windows of the subway to stop him from falling. They carry him into the subway as their true hero that belongs amongst them (img. 16). Clearly the subway is used in this context as a unifying symbol that connects the people and its superhero and also reminds them constantly of the urban space they inhabit, wherein this multicultural collaborative society exists.
In The Amazing Spiderman there is a totally different use of the subway as urban symbolic space. In this film Peter discovers his powers from the spider bite on a ride in the subway to his house. Every move he makes is enlarged,
exaggerated and he is not in control of his new powers just yet. He is asleep on the subway and this man wants to play a joke on him by putting his beer bottle on his head. One drop of beer hits Peter’s forehead and causes all his new senses to react: he throws the beer off his head and clings right on to the ceiling with his new spider fingers. While doing this, he threw the beer on a girl who is with the same group as the guy who was bullying him. When Peter tries to apologize to her his fingers get stuck on her top and this causes the other guy to yell at him and start a fight (img. 17).
These examples show how the metro during the day is used as a symbol of America’s multicultural unified society and at night as a symbol of a sketchy and dangerous place, which corresponds with the dangers of city life at night. They are both frames of recognition that help the audience become familiar with the space the protagonists inhabit. Next to that preconceived notions of such urban spaces, such as the dangerous subway at night, are confirmed by the people who inhabit those spaces in these films and thereby stating that those people do not belong within the dominant community model and should be avoided, just like certain urban spaces (at certain times).
In Batman Begins (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2005) the distinction between the ghetto and the city centre is used as territorial border for the good and innocent civilians and the place where all evil unfolds. The ghetto is called ‘the Narrows’ and looks like a nightmarish version of China Town: small, dark, smoky alleys, restaurants and food stalls, sketchy bars, laundry hanging through the small alleys, making sure there is never a clear sight of what is ahead or behind Batman. The insane asylum Arkham is placed in the ghetto of Gotham City, whereas in the city centre Wayne Enterprises is the main building of the area. The Narrows is marked by the insane, futureless children with drunken parents, corrupt police on the street, drug dealers and other scum and it is literally placed below Gotham’s City centre and separated by bridges and tunnels. It is an
isolated space, part of Gotham City, yet very distinct from it. It is no surprise that it is in the Narrows where all mayhem initiates. The League of Shadows, an idealistic movement who considers it their mission to intervene with immoral societies by letting them destroy themselves, wants to destroy Gotham City, because of its corruptness, decay and pollution. The league starts their mission by poisoning all crooks from the ghetto with an air toxin that creates anxiety and delusions, turning the people on themselves. They intend to send mayhem and madness to Gotham’s city centre, by using Gotham’s subway to spread their toxin into the entire city and setting ‘the beasts’, the intoxicated people from the
Narrows, loose on them. Again the subway is an important aspect of city life. These examples show very clearly how frames of recognition work and how easily sentiments are formed through them. The people who inhabit those spaces are the people who are expected to be there, according to a dominant
community model that creates a social hierarchy. There is less sympathy or recognition for the creature in the sewer than there is for the poor, innocent civilians in the city centre, at his mercy. Just as there is less recognition or sympathy for the poor, the mad, the addicted, the corrupt, living in the Narrows. Taking Douglas’ notions on danger and pollution into account, it is not just the spaces that are marked as taboo; it is the people who inhabit those spaces as well.
This hierarchical structure, which frames other lives as more grievable than others, becomes apparent when a sense of security and relieve is
established as soon as Batman stops the reactor with the toxin in the subway, which headed for the city centre. The film ends without resolving the toxin pollution in the Narrows and still there is this sense of relief and security now the city centre has been secured. The people of the Narrows may have been lost, but their lives were clearly less valuable than those lives of the people who inhabit the city centre: the sane, the working, the good and the moral. This example shows the hierarchical structures of geopolitics, on a global, but also on a local level and people’s sentiments and expectations are formed through this. It also points how frames of recognition are at work when people analyze and measure the value of a life that is taken. Different urban spaces are used in these films to reaffirm the social hierarchy that is at work within society.
1.2 Geopolitics: American people and the Other.
This section deals with the more personal consequences of geopolitics. Who is considered part of the American nation or culture and who is clearly marked as outsider or Other? Again resemblances between American (geo)politics and the in/out-group markings of these films show how popular culture and politics are connected and how they form ideas about human subjects: they can create a sense of collectivity or a division between (sub)groups and they mark who is American and who is not. These relations and boundaries are often
oversimplified in superhero films or stories and the resemblance with politics and historical processes indicate their connection with national culture and their reinforcing influence on the American audience.
This process can be linked to what Judith Butler calls frames of
recognition. These frames form our ability to understand and recognize others as human subjects. Butler explains that our ability to acknowledge a human subject is dependent upon norms that facilitate that recognition and in order to
understand or recognize a human subject as grievable life, it must conform to a certain conception or set of norms of what life is (2009). These frames are often used in times of war, to render other populations as ungrievable or already lost, because they do not posses certain sets of norms that would render their lives grievable and thus worthy of protection. These frames, just as geopolitical narratives, must circulate and continuously reproduce themselves in order to become meaningful and powerful and that is why popular culture (and in this study specific superhero films) is such a powerful tool for framing national identities and to delineate its geopolitical boundaries.
Butler’s theory resembles Achille Mbembe’s concept of ‘necropolitics’. Necropolitics, he states, is about the fact that the expression of sovereignty resides, to a large degree, in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who may die (2003). Thus, whose lives are worth protecting and rescuing and whose can we (legitimately) justify killing, once they threaten the
sovereignty of the nation? Mbembe’s theory is influenced by Foucault’s concept of bio power, which he explains as the domain of life over which power has taken control (2003). Mbembe explains that ‘to exercise sovereignty is to exercise control over morality and to define life as the deployment and manifestation of power’ (2003: p. 12). Sovereignty is a means through which frames of
recognition are installed in communities and whereby war or the dehumanization of other cultures is legitimized.
As explained in the last section, Iron Man is a clear example in which frames of recognition are deployed to indicate whose lives are considered
grievable and whose not (or who must live and who may die). The threats in Iron
Man resemble the post 09/11 anxiety and rhetoric. Dalby points out that even
though Osama bin Laden and his organization are not bound to one country, Bush quickly focused on Afghanistan as the site of war (2003). The chosen territory in Iron Man resembles the post 9/11 focus on a war against terrorism in Afghanistan and the images of the terrorists in this film resemble Osama bin
Laden, who also hid in the mountains in Afghanistan. Just like the terrorists in the film, bin Laden sent his political messages to the world through self made films on the Internet and television.
The resemblance between the terrorists in the film and Al’Qaida provides a frame of recognition for the audience that links it to 9/11, making the lives of the terrorists unrecognizable as grievable human subjects and Stark’s patriotic, heroic actions stand for the protection of the nation and freedom in general. The (moral) justification for killing the terrorist lies in the fact that they seem to threaten the sovereignty of America, because they attacked the American army in the beginning, and because they attack innocent civilians. As Butler’s theory of frames of recognition would presuppose, there is no sense of grief when Stark kills the terrorists.
Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics is quite literally deployed in Iron Man by Stark’s iron man suit. After Stark arrived in Afghanistan to fight the terrorists, some terrorists have taken civilians hostage as shields to protect themselves from Iron Man. Unfortunately the terrorists are not match for his hi-tech suit. Stark’s suit has a technique that enables it to determine which persons are hostile and which are not. Because of this his suit can aim very precisely on individuals, after it has secured which people are hostile. In this case even a suit can make such moral judgments on which lives are grievable and which are not. This shows how necropolitics works; the lives of the terrorists are ungrievable, here literally marked by a red target sign and framed as hostile persons (img. 18). The moral justification for killing them is that they threaten the lives of innocent civilians and the sovereignty of America.
Iron Man provides another striking example of how the process of
recognizability and thereby inciting emotions of grievance work. In Iron Man the use of new reports helps to demarcate this distinction between Afghanistan and America. News reports on the terrorism in Afghanistan depict helpless, poor people; fleeing their villages in a no-mans land. “Who will help?” the reporter asks during a news emission on the terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. Tony Stark, free and returned to the USA, watches the report. The reporter happens to mention the village where Yinsen comes from, which is being terrorized by the
same terrorists that kidnapped Stark at that time. Suddenly it is not just some town in Afghanistan, is it Yinsen’s hometown, a recognizable place for Stark, because Yinsen spoke about it. Stark also recognizes the terrorists on the news transmission. The effect is immediate: it is as though the reporter turns to Stark personally, asking him for help, and by referring to Yinsen’s hometown, and because Stark recognizes the terrorists his remorse and anger is sparked. He stands in front of the television and quite literally reaches his arm out to the people (img. 19). Both the process of recognizability and his personal experiences work as frames of recognition.
This example indicates how a central aspect of geopolitics has become the consideration whose lives are grievable and whose lives are not. The terrorists can be killed without grievance for their lives, because they endanger the innocent citizens of Afghanistan and America as well, since they bombed the American military tanks in the beginning of this film and abducted Stark. The lives of the innocent people in Afghanistan become important when Stark finds out the terrorists are in Yinsen’s hometown. Through this frame of recognition their lives become grievable for Stark as opposed to the lives of the terrorists. The fact that the terrorists threaten the innocent people in Afghanistan and endanger America’s sovereignty, shows how necropolitics functions and how the lives of the terrorists are considered to be ungrievable or how they are
unrecognizable as human subjects.
1.3 The state and its institutions.
“Hegemony is constructed not only through political ideologies but also, and more immediately, through the detailed scripting of some of the most ordinary and mundane aspects of everyday life. […] Any political analysis of the operation of dominance must take account of the role of institutions of popular culture in the complex milieu that ensures the reproduction of cultural (and thus political) norms,” Gramsci quoted by Dittmer, 2005: p. 627.
This section is analyzes the relation between the people, the superheroes and the national institutions. As the above-mentioned quote of Gramsci
emphasizes, there is a strong bond between popular culture and the reproduction of cultural norms. According to Butler, the state signifies the judicial and institutional structures and therefore the state must serve as a matrix for the obligations and rights of citizenship (2007). Butler’s theory
indicates the strong relationship between the state, people’s personal behaviour, and their conceptions. As Craib, cited by Edensor, states, we only have ideas that come to us from the outside, which he calls ‘the unthought known’ (2002). ‘Culture is a reification of the nation, it can be identified or ticked off according to a preconceived set of national characteristics […] A nationally rooted culture is the cause of behaviour, not the outcome,’ Edensor states (2002). This means that through popular culture and other sources the way people should act, in order to perform citizenship and be part of society is imposed upon them.
Superheroes have an extra value as national, iconic symbols that transfer a cultural model to its audience. They, as Dittmer explains, can embody and narrate America (2005). He points out that static, non-human symbols, such as the American flag or eagle, represent and construct the nation, but do not allow for a personal connection to it the same way that some superheroes do (2005). Superheroes, Dittmer claims, are cultural products that vaguely and invisibly connect the audience through the body of the hero, to the scale of the nation (2005). This section explores the triangular relation between the nation, the superheroes and citizenship. Edensor pointed that national identity is about using resources of history, language and culture in the process of becoming, rather than being (2002). The American people constantly have to reinvent themselves as American citizens through these national iconic symbols and shared cultural norms. Superheroes can function as national symbols or ideal role models, who can help the people reinvent themselves as belonging to a nation. Superheroes can set the example of a national identity they can be part of and an identity that is worth fighting for or ‘doing the right thing’ for.
Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, John Storey explains, is a condition in process wherein the dominant class dominates a society, but also guides through intellectual and moral leadership (2009). Hegemony theory is a useful tool when
it comes to analyzing what dominates American citizenship, exposing what ideal national citizen is imposed by the nation-state. Through consent or negotiations between the dominant and subordinate group a society remains (socially,
politically and economically) stable, Storey states (2009). This contains economic leadership as well. As Dittmer also points, Gramsci’s notion of hegemony is also applicable on capitalistic formulations of nationhood, nationalism and identity (2005). Guiding society is often done through a group of intellectuals that create homogeneity and awareness of its own function in political, social and economic fields, Storey explains (2009). They can be seen as the organizers of society, Storey argues, who help to promote ‘high-culture’ in all fields of science and technology (2006). Capitalism is the main hegemonic structure of American society. This section investigates how these films reproduce capitalism, America’s moral and values, and a hegemonic structure.
First of all, some of the attacks of the villains indicate the dominance of capitalism in America. As Halberstam argues, capitalism is rationalized and therefore people no longer see the fault lines (2005). In Spiderman 2 and
Spiderman 3 (dir. Sam Raimi, 2007) Spiderman has to fight villains when they try
to rob a bank. Otto Octavius robs a bank to get money to rebuild his invention and in Spiderman 3 Flint Marko, or Sandman, robs a bank to get money to be able to pay for his daughter’s hospital bills. Both examples indicate that money is essential in society, establishing money as central to all aspects of life. It also poses Spiderman as protector of capitalism, because he tries to keep the villains from stealing money from the national banks. Bane, the villain in The Dark Knight
Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012), raids the stock exchange in Gotham City to
hack it. Dozens of terrified people are locked inside the building. The fact that Bane chooses the stock exchange as a central point to destabilize the entire city reaffirms the dominance of capitalism in America (img. 20). An employee turns to Bane and says: “There’s no money here.” Bane replies: “Really? Then why are you people here?” This emphasizes the fact that money and business is central to America’s society. Bane also uses the people as hostages to get away from the stock exchange that is surrounded by the police. As a violator of society, Bane does not need to adhere to any rules, but the police do and he uses their moral obligation to protect society against them. Many villains misuse the moral
obligation of the police and superheroes, to protect the citizens, against them whenever they are in a confrontation. Their violation of citizens reinforces the necessity for an institution that protects them.
Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne can be seen as ideal examples for the
capitalist structure in American society, both being successful businessmen. They are intelligent and influential people within society, leading their parents’
companies. Their popularity and the fact that they often appear in national media, reaffirms their established position and importance. Their examples also link the importance of good parentage to the wellbeing of the nation and the reproduction of ideal citizenship. Bruce Wayne was raised by his father, who always gave back to society and taught his son the same morals and values. Stark’s father was a true patriot, who dedicated his life to the protection of the nation and Stark has ever since followed his footsteps. They are ideal citizens: successful within the capitalistic system and contributing to society.
Some superheroes can be seen as ‘intellectuals’ of society, who through their superpowers end up as outcasts of society. This suggests that superheroes can be dangerous to society, because they might end up with a power that is too strong for them to control. The Hulk, Doctor Banner, is a genius scientist, highly intelligent and willing to use his intelligence for the benefit of society, but because he is able to transform into the uncontrollable and very powerful Hulk he is cast out of society and hunt down, because he could endanger the
established order. The fact that Banner is not in control of his power reinforces the need for protective institutions within society, which can balance the distribution of power.
Another aspect, which reinforces the need for state institutions that structure society, is that some intellectual villains risk this balance by obtaining too much power. Many villains in the Spiderman films, such as Spiderman 2 or
The Amazing Spiderman, are villains that start out as brilliant scientists, who try
to use their brilliance for the community. For example: Otto Octavius tries to build a new energy source that is manually controllable through the four mechanical arms he attaches on his back. Before the demonstration he has a conversation with Peter Parker. He lectures Parker not to waste his intelligence: “Intelligence is not a privilege, it’s a gift and you use it for the good of mankind.”
This is how Gramsci suggests the intellectuals of society function in order to benefit the whole of society. Unfortunately his experiment fails and the four mechanical arms take over Otto’s brain. During the demonstration an important turning point occurs, with an important message for the people. “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand,” Otto states. This statement, linked to Otto turning into a villain, indicates that there is a clear danger if one individual, or intellectual, gains too much power, because he might not be able to handle it. It reaffirms the structure of the nation-state that power needs to be divided and controlled by the national institutions, because it is dangerous if one individual would gain too much power.
The Amazing Spiderman handles the same problem of intellectual
individuals that benefit society, but they balance on a thin line of becoming too powerful and not being able to handle such power. Doctor Curtis Connor works for Oscorp at the department of cross-genetics. Himself missing one arm, he tries to develop a genetic mutation in which people can restore their lost limbs, like lizards can regrow their own tail. His ideals are to benefit society and help the unfortunate, but using himself as a guinea pig, he is transformed into a human lizard, creating, just as with Otto Octavius, a multiple personality disorder through his mutation, with his good moral and intellectual side and his lizard side who seeks to control society and transform everyone into human lizards. “There will be no more loneliness, no more outcasts… We could enhance humanity on an evolutionary scale. Adapt to survive,” Curtis talks to himself in his sewer lab. This idea of forced unity is against the constitution of America that secures people’s right to freedom of speech and wherein individuality and liberty is promoted. A forced unity, erasing individuality is one of the things American people would seem to fear the most. This national rhetoric also became apparent after 9/11, since the attacks were described as an attack on freedom. Both examples explain that brilliance should be used to benefit the whole of society, but that such power should be controlled and contained by the institutions of the nation. Too much power in the hands of one individual could threaten the whole of society and outbalance the structure of society. This implies the necessity for a hegemonic structure that Gramsci described and that is why, as Foucault
