L’immaginario dei comics supereroici e del cinema di Sci-Fi nell’america obamiana: Un framing originale della comunicazione politica postmoderna

Abstract

During last decades, the presence of mass and pop culture through US politics has been increasingly spreading; and this phenomenon constitutes a very important expression of politainment processes. The article investigates one of those processes: the narrative and symbolic universes of superhero comics and science-fiction (especially those turned into a movie) during the Obama’s Administrations years. The analysis is focused on some characters and features: Superman, Batman and his enemy Joker, and Wonder Woman. Obama was the “Social media president”, and a politician inclined to pop politics and hybridization between politics and entertaiment’s genres (also for generational reasons). Similarly, Obama’s political marketing and spin doctoring often employed frames directly drawn out of comics and sci-fi imaginery. The comics’ characters selectioned in this article represent some of the most famous and popular superheroes, therefore well known not only by fans but the public opinion at large, belonging to the couple of main US publishers in that field: Dc Comics and Marvel. Focus, finally, is dedicated to ideological imaginery of the Star Wars saga, and its usages in American political struggle and debate. This work is interested in describing topics and icons coming from comics and sci-fi imaginery through propaganda and communication in establishment politics; at the same time, the article analyzes some case studies of antagonistic and “bottom-up” political practices. The article aims to identify the motivations why just superheroic imaginery (both in comics and in movies) became an important medium to represent leadership and political struggle metamorphosys during Obama’s years (and in postmodern America, at large).