Despite the growing importance of heroines across literary culture-and sales figures that demonstrate both young adult and adult females are reading about heroines in droves, particularly in graphic novels, comic books, and YA literature-few scholarly collections have examined the complex relationships between the representations of heroines and the changing societal roles for both women and men. In Heroines of Comic Books and Literature: Portrayals in Popular Culture, editors Maja Bajac-Carter, Norma Jones, and Bob Batchelor have selected essays by award-winning contributors that offer a variety of perspectives on the representations of heroines in today's society. Focused on printed media, this collection looks at heroic women depicted in literature, graphic novels, manga, and comic books. Addressing heroines from such sources as the Marvel and DC comic universes, manga, and the Twilight novels, contributors go beyond the account of women as mothers, wives, warriors, goddesses, and damsels in distress. These engaging and important essays situate heroines within culture, revealing them as tough and self-sufficient females who often break the bounds of gender expectations in places readers may not expect. Analyzing how women are and have been represented in print, this companion volume to Heroines of Film and Television will appeal to scholars of literature, rhetoric, and media as well as to broader audiences that are interested in portrayals of women in popular culture.
Acknowledgments Introduction I. Literature Chapter 1: To Heck with the Village: Fantastic Heroines, Journey and Return, Sandra J. Lindow Chapter 2: From Duckling to Swan: What Makes a Twilight Heroine Strong, Tricia Clasen Chapter 3: Salem's Daughters: Witchcraft, Justice, and the Heroine in Popular Culture, Lauren Lemley Chapter 4: Heroine: Christina of Markyate, K. A. Laity Chapter 5: The Bohemian Gypsy, Another Body to Sell: Deciphering Esmeralda in Popular Culture, Adina Schneeweis Chapter 6: Writing Women in War: Speaking Through, About, And For Female Soldiers in Iraq, Christina M. Smith II. Exotic, Foreign, Familiar, and Queer Chapter 7: The Borderland Construction of Latin American and Latina Heroines in Contemporary Visual Media, Mauricio Espinoza Chapter 8: Janissary: An Orientalist Heroine Or a Role Model For Muslim Women?, Itir Erhart & Hande Eslen-Ziya Chapter 9: Representations of Motherhood in X-men, Christopher Paul Wagenheim Chapter 10: Negotiating Life Spaces: How Marriage Marginalized Storm, Anita McDaniel Chapter 11: The Mother of All Superheroes: Idealization of Femininity in Wonder Woman, Sharon Zechowski & Caryn E. Neumann Chapter 12: Wonder Woman: Lesbian or Dyke? Paradise Island as a Woman's Community, Trina Robbins Chapter 13: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorists to Crimson Caped Crusaders: How Folk and Mainstream Lesbian Heroes Queer Cultural Space, April Jo Murphy III. Contemporary American Graphic Novels/Comics Chapter 14: Punching Holes in the Sky: Carol Danvers and the Potential of Superheroinism, Nathan Miczo Chapter 15: Jumping Rope Naked: John Byrne, Metafiction, and the Comics Code, Roy Cook Chapter 16: Invisible, Tiny, and Distant: The First Female Superheroes of the Marvel Age of Comics, Joseph Darowski Chapter 17: Heroines Aplenty, but None My Mother Would Know: Marvel's Lack of An Iconic Superheroine , T. Keith Edmunds Chapter 18: Liminality and Capitalism in Spider-Woman and Wonder Woman, or: How to Make Stronger (i.e. male) Two Super Powerful Women, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns Chapter 19: Empowerment as Transgression: The Rise and Fall of The Black Cat in Kevin Smith's The Evil That Men Do, Michael R. Kramer Index About the Editors and Contributors
