“Justice Has a Bad Side”

Figurations of Law and Justice in 21st-Century Superhero Movies
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dc.bibliographicCitation.firstPage1en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.issue4en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.lastPage23en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.volume13en_US
dc.contributor.authorMaruo-Schröder, Nicole
dc.contributor.editorBöger, Astrid
dc.contributor.editorMaruo-Schröder, Nicole
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-22T13:22:13Z
dc.date.available2022-09-22T13:22:13Z
dc.date.issued2018en_US
dc.description.abstractSuperhero narratives have always been deeply entangled with questions of justice, and their characters, crisis situations, and narrative solutions have changed in close relationship with the socio-historic contexts they responded to. Hence, the article argues, it is fruitful to read current superhero movies as both reflections of and comments on the post-9/11 legal and political landscape characterized by an ongoing state of exception and the resulting suspension of certain laws and civil rights. Analyzing Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Captain America: Civil War (all released in 2016) in terms of genre, narrative as well as characters and their symbolic implications, the article shows how the films comment in ambiguous, even contradictory ways on the current terrain of justice. Although they are critical of the loss of a democratic conception of justice, in which laws and the ways they are upheld and enforced are subject to independent control instances, the films also emphasize the necessity of suspending laws during crisis situations, thus supporting an ongoing state of exception in the face of contemporary terrorist threats.en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.4000/ejas.13817
dc.identifier.urihttp://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?fidaac-11858/2319
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.relation.issn1991-9336en_US
dc.relation.journalEuropean Journal of American Studiesen_US
dc.rightsL::CC BY-NC 4.0en_US
dc.subject.ddcddc:791en_US
dc.subject.fieldamericanstudiesen_US
dc.subject.fieldfilmstudiesen_US
dc.subject.fieldculturalstudiesen_US
dc.subject.fieldpopularcultureen_US
dc.title“Justice Has a Bad Side”en_US
dc.title.alternativeFigurations of Law and Justice in 21st-Century Superhero Moviesen_US
dc.title.specialissueEnvisioning Justice: Mediating the Question of Rights in American Visual Cultureen_US
dc.typearticleen_US
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionen_US
dspace.entity.typePublication
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