Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes
A study that reads Black superheroes not as disposable pop culture but as a problem of racial representation and political imagination. It moves across comics and screen culture to rethink the hero figure.
Work Information
Black superheroes become a way to rethink racial representation.
Adilifu Nama closely analyzes the relationship between Black representation and American pop culture through figures such as Black Panther and Luke Cage.
Book Information
- Publisher
- University of Texas Press
- Published
- 2011-10-01
- Pages
- 180 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 22.86 x 15.24 x 1.27 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780292726741
- ISBN-10
- 9780292726741
- Price
- 5361 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Social Sciences/Specific Demographics/African American Studies
Winner, American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, 2012 Super Black places the appearance of black superheroes alongside broad and sweeping cultural trends in American politics and pop culture, which reveals how black superheroes are not disposable pop products, but rather a fascinating racial phenomenon through which futuristic expressions and fantastic visions of black racial identity and symbolic political meaning are presented. Adilifu Nama sees the value--and finds new avenues for exploring racial identity--in black superheroes who are often dismissed as sidekicks, imitators of established white heroes, or are accused of having no role outside of blaxploitation film contexts. Nama examines seminal black comic book superheroes such as Black Panther, Black Lightning, Storm, Luke Cage, Blade, the Falcon, Nubia, and others, some of whom also appear on the small and large screens, as well as how the imaginary black superhero has come to life in the image of President Barack Obama. Super Black explores how black superheroes are a powerful source of racial meaning, narrative, and imagination in American society that express a myriad of racial assumptions, political perspectives, and fantastic (re)imaginings of black identity. The book also demonstrates how these figures overtly represent or implicitly signify social discourse and accepted wisdom concerning notions of racial reciprocity, equality, forgiveness, and ultimately, racial justice.
Adilifu Nama is an Associate Professor at California State University Northridge. He is the author of the award-winning Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film, the first book length examination of the topic. Throughout his books, various articles, and presentations, Nama has explored how race and media intersect in television, film, and hip-hop music with a critical eye toward contextualizing black representation along with black racial formation.
Reviews
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Excellent Book
I enjoyed reading this book. I didn’t know the history of Black Super Heroes in comic books but this book breaks it down where it’s easy to follow and learn. I gained a great deal of knowledge in knowing the history of Black Super Heroes and how they arrived with the concept & what was taking place in real time when they were created. Highly recommend reading this book.
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Impressive!
I read Super Black when it first came out. Lately I've been re-reading much of it, and I'm reminded how impressive this particular book is. Dr. Nama has deftly managed the feat of providing genuine scholarship while writing in a way that would be meaningful and interesting for a general audience. The review of character history blends well with his thoughts on culture and symbolism. It is truly an excellent work.
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Great but smaller than I thought
It wasn’t as large as I had hoped and I thought it would be a hard cover. It may have been my fault and I didnt read the description thoroughly but it’s still good and looks great. I just wanted to display it and it’s too small for the display shelf I purchased.
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Fun and Educational Analysis of Black Superheroes
It was a detailed and interesting piece on black superheroes. Doc Nama really has done his work and really does do a great job of making this socio-cultural analysis very fun and educational. It also introduced me to some great comic book runs (or arcs if you are more familiar with that term) that I need to check out such as Green Lantern: Mosiac.
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Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I purchased this book because I wanted to learn about African-Americans in science fiction. I was amazed by the history, the education and the artistry of Black science fiction. I learned about the negativity, as well as the positivity of Black sci-fi characters in comic books, television, movies and documentaries. It is important for African-Americans to become more involved with sci-fi because there are plenty more stories about Black History to be told through sci-fi and other genres of literature.