The Serial Politics of Pop Aesthetics: Superhero Comics and Science Fiction Novels (A01)

• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438577023

Subproject A01 takes up the heuristics of the CRG as it investigates changing scales of evaluation under conditions of quantitative attention measurement in very popular examples of ‘low culture’. Focusing on the superheroes Captain America (since 1941) and Perry Rhodan (since 1961) and accessing their reception in fan mail, fanzines, forums, blogs, and wikis, the project assesses the consequences of the shifting high/low axiology on the aesthetics of these serial characters and the legitimization of their political nature. These consequences, the project proposes, are symptomatic for the transformations of the popular around 1950 and 2000.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1472: Transformations of the Popular
• Applicant Institution: Universität Siegen
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Daniel Stein; Professor Dr. Niels Werber