Item Details

Comicbooks as cultural archeology: Gender representation in Captain America during WWII

Issue: Vol 11 No. 2-3 (2015) SPECIAL ISSUE:

Journal: Linguistics and the Human Sciences

Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics

Abstract:

The aim of this article is to discuss how comicbooks, as complex multimodal artifacts, discursively interpret and evaluate events during World War II. More specifically, I examine how women are represented in an archive of 69 Captain America stories published by Marvel Comics between March 1941 and March 1943, drawing on theoretical developments within the area of social semiotics (Halliday, 1978; Hodge and Kress, 1988). An important argument within social semiotics and multimodal studies is that texts are a combination of semiotic resources that are used for production and consumption of meanings, in specific contexts (Hodge and Kress, 1988). As a consequence, by examining these semiotic resources one can develop a better understanding of social meanings that circulate in society and how these meanings are structurally organized. By examining forms of discourse for social analysis we may identify ways of addressing particular issues at the level of representation.

Author: Francisco O.D. Veloso

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