Monstrous Imaginaries

The Legacy of Romanticism in Comics

Maaheen Ahmed

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English

University Press of Mississippi
30 December 2019

Graphic novel & Manga artwork; Literary studies: general; Popular culture

Monsters seem inevitably linked to humans and not always as mere opposites. Maaheen Ahmed examines good monsters in comics to show how Romantic themes from the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries persist in today’s popular culture. Comics monsters, questioning the distinction between human and monster, self and other, are valuable conduits of Romantic inclinations. Engaging with Romanticism and the many monsters created by Romantic writers and artists such as Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, and Goya, Ahmed maps the heritage, functions, and effects of monsters in contemporary comics and graphic novels. She highlights the persistence of recurrent Romantic features through monstrous protagonists in English- and French-Language comics and draws out their implications. Aspects covered include the dark Romantic predilection for ruins and the sordid, the solitary protagonist and his quest, nostalgia, the prominence of the spectacle as well as excessive emotions, and above all, the monster’s ambiguity and rebelliousness.

Ahmed highlights each Romantic theme through close readings of well-known but often overlooked comics, including Enki Bilal's Monstre tetralogy, Jim O'Barr's The Crow, and Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, as well as the iconic comics Series Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Mike Mignola's Hellboy. In blurring the otherness of the monster, these protagonists retain the exaggeration and uncontrollability of all monsters while incorporating Romantic characteristics.

By: Maaheen Ahmed
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 366g
ISBN: 9781496825278
ISBN 10: 1496825276
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 30 December 2019
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Maaheen Ahmed is associate professor of comparative literature at Ghent University, Belgium, and a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO). Ahmed is author of Monstrous Imaginaries: The Legacy of Romanticism in Comics and Openness of Comics: Generating Meaning within Flexible Structures, both published by University Press of Mississippi. She has also published articles in and edited special issues for European Comic Art; Authorship; SCAN: Journal of Media Arts Culture; European Journal of American Studies; and International Journal of Comic Art.

Reviews for Monstrous Imaginaries: The Legacy of Romanticism in Comics

Ahmed's Monstrous Imaginaries offers one of the few sustained analyses of the Romantic legacy in the popular visual arts of the late-twentieth century. The monograph will doubtless make a significant contribution to the scholarly understanding of comic books and graphic novels, as part of an enduring and influential Romantic cultural heritage.--Will Kitchen Romance, Revolution & Reform An invaluable text for scholars working in contemporary comics and/or the field of Romanticism.--Alisia Chase Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society