This Xmas, the DA will be sitting down before an open fire to read and discuss Elaine Fishwick and Heusen Mak's Crime Media Culture article 'Fighting Crime, Battling Injustice: The World of Real-Life Superheroes'.
Elaine Fishwick, of the University of Western Sydney, examines the lives of those 'real-life superheroes' who pursue campaigns of justice adopting the guise of fictional archetypes.
Abstract:
This article explores the motivations, actions and experiences of real-life superheroes, those individuals who adopt a superhero persona inspired by both comic books and films, to engage in a range of activities that involve, amongst others, fighting crime, providing community support and battling injustice. Drawing on 13 in-depth interviews with individuals from different countries, as well as an ethnographic content analysis of online material, this innovative research explores the merging of the fictional and the real, the virtual and the terrestrial in the lives of interviewees. The article also enriches our understanding of the ‘carnival of crime’ and ‘edgework’ by arguing that risk, pleasure, excitement and transgression can also be found in a carnival of ‘doing good’ as well as in ‘wrongdoing’.
Details!
The Xmas DA will take place on Wednesday 14th December, at 6.30, in the Library Bar of the Central Hotel - Exchequer Street, Dublin 2.
