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Superman as lived religion in contemporary American culture PDF

165 Pages·2016·1.26 MB·English
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University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Summer 2016 "Look up in the sky:" Superman as lived religion in contemporary American culture Brandon O'Neal Dean University of Iowa Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Religion Commons Copyright 2016 Brandon O'Neal Dean This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2065 Recommended Citation Dean, Brandon O'Neal. ""Look up in the sky:" Superman as lived religion in contemporary American culture." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2016. https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.8jagj9l5 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Religion Commons “LOOK UP IN THE SKY:” SUPERMAN AS LIVED RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CULTURE by Brandon O’Neal Dean A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Religious Studies in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa August 2016 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Richard Brent Turner Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL ____________________________ PH.D. THESIS _________________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Brandon O’Neal Dean has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Religious Studies at the August 2016 graduation. Thesis Committee: ____________________________________________ Richard Brent Turner, Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Kristy Nabhan-Warren ____________________________________________ Jordan Smith ____________________________________________ Corey Creekmur ____________________________________________ Deborah Whaley To Samantha and Harper ii “This is an imaginary story…aren’t they all?” Alan Moore “Whatever Happen to the Man of Tomorrow?” Superman #423 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee for their guidance in the process of compiling this work. It has been a pleasure working with all of you. Thank you Dr. Richard Turner for being a great mentor and all your words of encouragement. Thank you Dr. David Ede, Dr. Stephen Covell, and Dr. Kevin Wanner for giving me the courage to pursue my ideas in the early stages of my academic career. And lastly, thank you to Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and all the thousands of others who have helped to shape Superman over the years. You gave the world a shared dream of heroics and an idea of what it may truly means to be human. iv ABSTRACT This study argues that, rather than simply reflecting the religious worldviews of his creators and readers, the presentations of Superman that span more than 75 years in a variety of mass media have produced a mythology, iconography, ethical code, and set of practices that reflect a dynamic relationship with the complex religious systems in the United States. The presentation of Superman by his creators and the reception of Superman by his readers are heavily influenced by Christianity, Judaism, and American civil religion (he does, after all, represent “truth, justice, and the American way”) along with many other religious worldviews. This study also explores the dynamic and complex interactions between Superman and his fans and shows that the figure of Superman is used by his fans to understand theological and ethical issues, while, at the same time, their understanding of Superman shapes those theological and ethical opinions and ideas. American religious traditions influence the popular images and representations of Superman, but Superman also influences the understanding of religious traditions across a breadth of historical and cultural contexts. Superman’s as a site of multiple expressions of permanent liminality allows the character and his stories to be useful sites for people to perform the religious work of constructing, strengthening, and/or negotiating boundaries between categories, such as the human and the divine or the secular and the religious. It is through these boundaries that people define and interpret their religious worldviews. v PUBLIC ABSTRACT First published in 1938, Superman has an undeniable impact on American and global popular culture. Superman is a strange and foreign alien who is extremely human and quintessentially American. He is mortal, yet he possesses a level of power that is godly. It seems only natural that the cultural influence of this character enters the religious sphere as well. Superman’s creators and audience read him through their particular religious worldviews, but he also has an effect on those worldviews. This study will explore a variety of ways that Superman and his stories have been encompassed and expressed by American religions to define what it means to be a god, to be a human, to be an American, to be a Christian, to be a father, and/or to be a man. Ultimately, it will demonstrate the importance of American popular culture when it comes to how Americans construct the religious worlds in which they live. The importance of Superman as an object of analysis exists in its ability to reveal meanings of religious experience in twenty-first century America. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: BEYOND TRADITIONS ................................................................................. 5 Religion and its Permeable Boundaries ...................................................................................... 6 A Brief Origin of Superman ...................................................................................................... 11 Early Superman Scholarship ..................................................................................................... 12 Superman: Jewish, Christian, or Other? .................................................................................... 13 A Billion (and Counting) Supermen ......................................................................................... 15 Superman as Religious .............................................................................................................. 18 Superman and Liminality .......................................................................................................... 19 Superman’s Liminality and its Religious Use in Boundary Maintenance ................................ 25 CHAPTER 2: BOXING SUPERMAN ......................................................................................... 29 American Civil Religion and Superman ................................................................................... 30 Muhammad Ali ......................................................................................................................... 32 The Racial Politics of Heavyweight Championship Boxing ..................................................... 35 Ali, the Nation of Islam, and Malcolm X .................................................................................. 39 1960s Mainstream Media and Ali’s Image ............................................................................... 43 Superman vs. Muhammad Ali ................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 3: A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY .................................................................. 59 “The Power Within” (1988-1989) ............................................................................................. 60 The Kingdom (1999).................................................................................................................. 64 “Angel” (2007) .......................................................................................................................... 66 Superman’s Mistaken Identity as Religious Work .................................................................... 68 CHAPTER 4: SUPERMAN ON A SUNDAY MORNING ......................................................... 74 Selling Movie Tickets to the Religious: Historical Context ..................................................... 81 Superman: Silver Screen Savior ................................................................................................ 84 Man of Steel Ministry Resources ............................................................................................ 102 Drawing the Line, Forming the Boundaries ............................................................................ 107 CHAPTER 5: FATHERING THE MAN OF STEEL ................................................................ 114 The American Bible Society’s “Father’s Day Conversation Guide: Man of Steel”................ 116 Man of Steel and the Fatherhood Blogosphere........................................................................ 121 The Father and Christian Male as Superman .......................................................................... 132 vii The Superman Mythos as a Site for Fatherhood and Masculinity .......................................... 136 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 141 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 145 viii

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