Image from Civil War (Marvel Comics)
This webpage is dedicated to identifying, discussing and understanding the portrayal of state repression and behavioral challenges directed against political authorities as depicted in popular culture. State repression refers to civil liberties restrictions such as political banning as well as censorship and personal integrity violations such as torture, political arrests and mass killing; behavioral challenges refer to political dissent, terrorism and insurgency; and, popular culture refers to ideas, images and/or sounds that are created as well as circulated throughout society. Specifically, I am focused on film, comics and graphic novels. I will also be moving into board games, music, fine art and dance. Given where these products can be found, I refer to them as "POP Struggle" which is at once an old as well as a new genre like westerns and crime dramas. Actually, I will go one step further to suggest that you have been an avid fan of POP Struggle for years, you just did not know what it was called.
Take the picture identified above. This image is taken from the Marvel series "Civil War". Here's how the story goes. There was a reality tv show with one group of superheroes photographing their capture of another. During the show, there was an explosion and a bunch of innocent civilians got killed. In the aftermath of this massacre, the US government decided that it was too dangerous to have beings out in the world with incredible powers unchecked. They then instituted a registration act whereby all beings had to turn themselves in to be registered. The Marvel universe split with some favoring registration led by Iron Man (the right side above) and some not favoring registration led by Captain America (the left side above).
Upon seeing this type of material, I was immediately taken by the similarities between the content of the comic and the content of the typical sources used to study contentious politics (e.g., newspapers or government records). I started to poor through material and found more and more examples. Actually, so many examples were found that I wondered if I had discovered a genre of popular culture. Within existing literature, a "genre" is commonly defined as a categorization of some medium whereby one style is delimited from another based on some set of criteria. For example, film genres include Western, war film, horror film, romantic comedy film, musical and crime film, meaning that there are distinct categories which separate one from another. Illustrating one genre, according to Wikipediaa:
Western films commonly feature as their protagonists stock characters such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, often depicted as
semi-nomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, and buckskins, use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival, and ride
between dusty towns and cattle ranches on trusty steeds.
Of course, the concept of a genre is not without its problems. Again, according to Wikipedia:
Genre suffers from the same ills of any classification system. Genre is useful as long as it is remembered that it is a helpful tool, to be reassessed
and scrutinized, and to weigh works on their unique merit as well as their place within the genre. It has been suggested that genres resonate
with people because of the familiarity, the shorthand communication, as well as the tendency of genres to shift with public mores and to reflect
the zeitgeist.
This said, POP Struggle represents a new acknowledgement of a genre that has been around. The project thus captures a reassessment and scrutinization of popular culture resulting in the identification, label and analysis. I maintain though that POP Struggle is not alien to you. I guarnantee that you know it when you see it:
See political authorities on the one side and some protestors on the other? That is the core of POP Struggle right there.
What will you find on this site:
What is not included?
Why not wait for the book? Well, 1) the topic is kind of fun and I can get started now, 2) the book might not be out in the public for like a year and 3) wouldn't you like to talk about some films, comics and graphic novels right now?
Enjoy!!!
Christian Davenport
Positions
- Professor of Political Science & Faculty Associate with Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan
- Co Founder & Co Director, Conflict Consortium
- Director, Radical Information Project
- Director, Stop Our States
- Co Founder, New Jack Academics
Contact
- Personal Webpage: www.christiandavenport.com
- Email: [email protected]
Social Media:
- Twitter: @engagedscholar
Mailing Address
- Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Recent Scholarly Information
- New(ish) Book: Media Bias, Perspective and State Repression: The Black Panther Party (Cambridge University, 2010); see http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/us/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521759706
What will you find on this site:
- Discussion of different medium (i.e., film, graphic novels, comics - for now)
- What Political Authorities are involved
- What Challengers are involved
- What contentious actions are involved (e.g., torture and mass killing for authorities; bombing and protest for challengers)
- Some description of the back and forth between authorities and challengers
- Who "wins" the conflict/confrontation
- Reviews of POP Struggle related products (i.e., film, graphic novels and comics as well as an occasional game)
- Displays and discussions of original POP struggle materials provided by my students over the years
What is not included?
- Crime: it is possible that a government might criminalize a challenging group for various crimes (e.g., robbery, burglary, pornography, incitement to riot) but if the object of contention is financial benefit and not transforming the political, economic or social system(s), then this is not going to be found here.
- War: this involves sovereign states fighting other sovereign states and I am only focused on when one government goes against its own people or those within their territorial domain.
- Zombies: First, this is now the domain of my friend Dan Drezner and thus I leave all things there to him; Second, most zombie stuff concerns international relations [hence Dan's relevance] as there is generally no state and plenty of anarchy.
- Interstate war (i.e., where two sovereign nations fight one another)
- Gang violence/crime drama (i.e., where there might be a challenger to existing political authority but the objective is monetary not political)
- Non-fiction (i.e., historical work, documentaries and human rights records)
Why not wait for the book? Well, 1) the topic is kind of fun and I can get started now, 2) the book might not be out in the public for like a year and 3) wouldn't you like to talk about some films, comics and graphic novels right now?
Enjoy!!!
Christian Davenport
Positions
- Professor of Political Science & Faculty Associate with Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan
- Co Founder & Co Director, Conflict Consortium
- Director, Radical Information Project
- Director, Stop Our States
- Co Founder, New Jack Academics
Contact
- Personal Webpage: www.christiandavenport.com
- Email: [email protected]
Social Media:
- Twitter: @engagedscholar
Mailing Address
- Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Recent Scholarly Information
- New(ish) Book: Media Bias, Perspective and State Repression: The Black Panther Party (Cambridge University, 2010); see http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/us/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521759706
