Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Popular Culture

This thesis examines the narrative and visual motifs of the three most successful superhero films of the 2008 blockbuster season. Due to their overwhelming popularity, I read the films The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Hancock as national texts. Building off the work of Benedict Anderson, Susan Jeffords, and Siegfried Kracauer, the goal of this project is to identify the means by which these films help construct a sense of the American national identity in 2008. In order to do so, I employ theories of masculinity and trauma to understand the common tropes of the superhero genre. This genre is defined by emphasizing the narrative convention of trauma as a catalyst for the heroic actions of the protagonist. Visually, these films are rife with the imagery of shattering glass which functions as the “allegorical moment” as identified by Adam Lowenstein because it is reminiscent of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The combination of these visual and narrative motifs within these films creates the dramatic tension for their plots. The means of resolution for this dramatic tension comes through the use of violence that is both retributive and preemptive. Because the three most successful films of 2008 link imagery and narratives of trauma to violent action, it would appear that America not only values but desires such behavior. All three films are characterized by repetition of visual and narrative motifs of masculinity in trauma, revealing that America, during this period, was concerned with trauma's effect on masculinity. Narratively, vulnerability is the ultimate fear within these superhero films, which show traumatized male bodies being protected by masks, armored suits, and isolation. By situating textual analysis within the context of Presidential election campaigning, this thesis attempts to form an understanding of the psychological disposition of America.

Committee: Kristen Rudisill PhD (Committee Chair); Jeffrey Brown PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2018, Counseling Psychology

Racial oppression is constantly changing and adapting throughout the course of history. Research has illustrated that experiences of racism stress people of color (POC), have a profound impact on the well-being of its targets, and represent a source of traumatic injury (i.e., insidious trauma). A small, but growing base of literature has delineated the relationship between experiences of racism and the development of posttraumatic stress symptomology for POC, generally, and African Americans, specifically. The current study sought to add to the existing literature in this field of inquiry by examining different types of racist experiences and their impact on posttrauma outcomes. Additionally, this study sought to further illuminate the complexities in variability for African American individual's responses to racism by examining the moderating roles of racial socialization and gender in the development of posttraumatic stress symptomology in response to different kinds of racist experiences. Results indicated that experiences of racism (including individual, institutional, and cultural racism) are uniquely predictive of the endorsement of posttraumatic stress symptoms in the sample and black women were found to endorse experiencing more of each type of racist experiences compared to black men in the sample. Results of the moderating role of racial socialization and gender were mixed. Of note, racial socialization messages emphasizing cultural pride were found to moderate the relationship between racism and posttrauma reactions. The findings of this study have implications for designing empirically supported culturally informed interventions, will aid in appropriately labeling and externalizing responsibility, will help to legitimize the daily experiences of African Americans, and will aid in changing the larger sociopolitical context.

Committee: Ingrid Weigold Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Dawn M. Johnson Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Suzette L. Speight Ph.D. (Committee Member); John E. Queener Ph.D. (Committee Member); David B. Baker Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Counseling Psychology