ENGL 204 A: Popular Fiction and Media

Schedule of readings:  You should complete the required reading prior to the lecture for that day (for instance, read the works assigned for March 31 before the March 31 class meeting).  The lectures on the assigned readings will be posted at least a few days before the date listed in the schedule of readings, and you should have viewed the Panopto video of the lecture before the date of the class meeting. Shorter pieces available as pdfs are marked as such below and can be found on the “Files” page of the Canvas site.   Some readings are suggested only; you are not required to read these works.  I will usually refer to suggested readings during our class meetings, and you may find them useful for your written work, but the essays will not require you to have read the suggested materials.   

Week 1.

March 29: Introduction and overview: How to read superheroes 

March 31: The comics medium

Excerpts from Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (chapters 1-3; pdf)

Week 2. Science fiction and the superman/woman idea

April 5: Excerpts from Philip Wylie, Gladiator (pdf)

              Brian Attebery, “Super Men” (pdf)

Suggested only: Jack Williamson, “The Girl from Mars” (pdf)

April 7: C.L. (Catherine) Moore, “No Woman Born” (pdf)

              Judith Merril, "That Only a Mother" (pdf)

              Brian Attebery, “Wonder Women” (pdf)

Suggested only: C.L. Moore, “The Children’s Hour”

Week 3. The origin of superhero comics during World War II (the Golden Age): Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman

April 12: Herbert S. Fine (Jerry Siegel), “Reign of the Superman” – available online at:              

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00077088/00001

“The Origin of Superman & His Powers” (June 1939; pdf)    

“What If Superman Ended the War?” (February 1940; pdf)

“Visit to Hitler” (1945; pdf)

 “The Adventure of the Merchant of Murder” (May 1942; pdf)

“Return to Krypton” (1988; pdf)

Suggested only: Gerard Jones, “Men of Tomorrow” (pdf)

Suggested only: "Must There Be a Superman?" (pdf)

April 14: “The Return of Doctor Death” (1939; pdf)

                “Batman Versus the Vampire, Parts One and Two” (1939; pdf)

                 “The Origin of Batman” (1948; pdf)

                “There Is No Hope in Crime Alley!” (1976; pdf)

Suggested only: “Case No. 1: Meet Captain America” (1941; pdf)

Week 4.

April 19: “The Origin of Wonder Woman” (1942; pdf)

                “The Unbound Amazon” (1943; pdf)

                “Battle for Womanhood” (1943; pdf)

                “The Adventure of the Life Vitamin” (1943; pdf)

                “America’s Wonder Women of Tomorrow” (1943; pdf)

Suggested only: Trina Robbins, “The Great Women Superheroes” (pdf)

April 21: Contemporary superhero narratives and the turn to realism

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen (chapters 1-4)

Geoff Klock, “The Revisionary Superhero Narrative” (pdf)

Suggested only: Alan Moore, “The Mark of Batman: An Introduction” (pdf)  

Week 5.

April 26: Watchmen (chapters 5-8)

April 28: Watchmen (chapters 9-12)

Week 6.

May 3: Watchmen

Important: Paper assignment #1 due, Monday, May 2, by email to tfoster@uw.edu

May 5: Narrating a universe: Return to the Silver Age

Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, Marvels (chapters 1-2)

Charles Hatfield, “Jack Kirby and the Marvel Aesthetic” (pdf)

Week 7.

May 10:  Marvels (chapters 3-4)

May 12: From universe to multiverse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018 film)

Week 8.

May 17: The Amazing Spider-Man: Edge of Spider-Verse

Suggested only: Kim Newman, “Ubermensch” (pdf)

Suggested only: Henry Jenkins, “Scribbling in the Margins: Fan Readers/Fan Writers” (pdf)

May 19: Superheroes, race, and gender       

Selections from Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright, Icon, to be viewed in class and posted on the Canvas site

Suggested only: Browse the images at the Black Kirby tumblr site: https://blackkirby.tumblr.com/

Suggested only: Kodwo Eshun, “Further Considerations on Afrofuturism,” available online at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/48294 (requires UW login)

Week 9.

May 24: Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew, The Shadow Hero

May 26: The Shadow Hero

                “When Worlds Collide” (pdf)

Week 10.

May 31: G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel: No Normal, vol. 1

Suggested only: Jack Cole, “Plague of Plastic People” (1950; pdf)  

Suggested only: H.G. Wells, “The Limits of Individual Plasticity” (pdf)

June 2: Ms. Marvel: No Normal

Important: Paper assignment #2 due, by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8; email to tfoster@uw.edu