Ambiguous Heroism: Anti-Heroes and the Pharmakon of Justice

Comerford, C

Ambiguous Heroism: Anti-Heroes and the Pharmakon of Justice

Comerford, C

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Publisher:: Murdoch University
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Interactive Media, 2016, (11), pp. 1 - 13 (13)
Issue Date:: 2016-08-02

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Comerford, C	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Efthimiou, O	en_US
dc.date.issued	2016-08-02	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Interactive Media, 2016, (11), pp. 1 - 13 (13)	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1833-0533	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/120521
dc.description.abstract	This paper identifies several key anti-heroes and their capacity for questioning how complicated, ambiguous forms of heroism are represented and negotiated in contemporary popular culture. Specifically, the paper uses as case studies three characters at different positions on the anti-hero spectrum – Doctor Who’s eponymous protagonist, the DC Comics superhero Batman, and 24’s anti-terrorist agent Jack Bauer. The paper questions ways in which these texts and their protagonists articulate complex notions of contemporary justice, morality and ethics, achieved partly through their fictional enactments and interrogations of justice and how justice is constituted. The paper attests that these characters complicate audience notions of law and justice, and how the conceptual challenge of the ‘good’/‘evil’ binary results in a more nuanced understanding of this particular form of heroism.	en_US
dc.publisher	Murdoch University	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Interactive Media	en_US
dc.title	Ambiguous Heroism: Anti-Heroes and the Pharmakon of Justice	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	11	en_US
utslib.location.activity	Australia	en_US
utslib.for	2001 Communication and Media Studies	en_US
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies	en_US
utslib.for	1902 Film, Television and Digital Media	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
pubs.issue	11	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published online	en_US

Abstract:

This paper identifies several key anti-heroes and their capacity for questioning how complicated, ambiguous forms of heroism are represented and negotiated in contemporary popular culture. Specifically, the paper uses as case studies three characters at different positions on the anti-hero spectrum – Doctor Who’s eponymous protagonist, the DC Comics superhero Batman, and 24’s anti-terrorist agent Jack Bauer. The paper questions ways in which these texts and their protagonists articulate complex notions of contemporary justice, morality and ethics, achieved partly through their fictional enactments and interrogations of justice and how justice is constituted. The paper attests that these characters complicate audience notions of law and justice, and how the conceptual challenge of the ‘good’/‘evil’ binary results in a more nuanced understanding of this particular form of heroism.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/120521