03471nam a22005295i 4500 978-3-031-62933-4 DE-He213 20251030112647.0 cr nn 008mamaa 240724s2024 sz | s |||| 0|eng d 9783031629334 978-3-031-62933-4 10.1007/978-3-031-62933-4 doi B790-5802 HPC bicssc PHI031000 bisacsh QDH thema Misra, Aditya. author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut 81196 Theorizing the Superhero [electronic resource] : Performativity and Politics / by Aditya Misra. 1st ed. 2024. Cham : Springer Nature Switzerland : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. XIX, 181 p. 5 illus. online resource. text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Chapter 1: Re-thinking the Superhero: A Concept in the Making -- Chapter 2: A Tussle with the Muscle: Narayan Debnath’s Bantul the Great -- Chapter 3: The Shah of Blah Kills the Tiger by Words: Premendra Mitra’s Ghanada -- Chapter 4: Mapping the Postcolonial Genius: Satyajit Ray’s Professor Shonku -- Chapter 5: Madness of Speech: Truth, Power and the Birbal Way. This book uses contemporary continental philosophy to develop an alternative theory of the superhero to the one currently offered by the comic book industry and comic book studies. Studying superheroes from South Asian pop culture, this book questions the definition of the superhero and the allegedly sacrosanct nature of its origin and identity in comic books. This book looks at the superhero as a performative figure and explores how the superheroic imagination opens up diverse modes of creative thinking. Superheroes studied in this book include Narayan Debnath’s Bantul the Great (comics), Premendra Mitra’s Ghanashyam Das or Ghanada (Tall Tale), Satyajit Ray’s Professor Trilokeswar Shonku (science fiction/fantasy fiction), and one of the nine gems of Emperor Akbar’s court, Raja Birbar or Birbal (mediaeval Indian history). By virtue of perpetual reconfiguration of its elements, the book argues, the concept of the superhero makes itself ‘always new’ and it is always already ‘open onto elsewhere’. Aditya Misra, Ph.D., is an independent scholar who has published essays and reviews in journals such as South Asian Review, Wasafiri: International Contemporary Writing, and Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry, among others. Continental Philosophy. 66476 Popular Culture. 57605 Ethnology Asia. 66900 Culture. 59159 Continental Philosophy. 66476 Popular Culture. 57605 Asian Culture. 66902 SpringerLink (Online service) Springer Nature eBook Printed edition: 9783031629327 Printed edition: 9783031629341 Printed edition: 9783031629358 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62933-4 ZDB-2-REP ZDB-2-SXPR 61874 61874