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Topic:
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Kierkegaard and Superheroes: Of Pseudonyms and Superman
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Speaker:
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David Boehmer, PhD
Adjunct Faculty Martin Luther University College Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo
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Time:
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Friday, December 6, 2019 7:15 pm - 10:00 pm
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Place:
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Combination Room
Trinity College, Univ. Of Toronto
6 Hoskin Avenue, Toronto
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Inquiry:
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Professor Abrahim H. Khan
Trinity College
Tel. 416 978-3039 (O), 416 978-2133(off. asst)
E-mail:khanah@chass.utoronto.ca
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David Boehmer (Ph.D.Toronto) wrote his dissertation on Kierkegaard's relation to the Lutheran tradition, specifically Kierkegaard's development of the claim that the finite is capable of the infinite. Perceiving a Romantic resonance. Dr. Boehmer has gone on to think about divine immanence and communication in a broadly-conceived Romanticism. He is currently interested in the intersections between thinker-artists such as Kierkegaard and Luther and Hamann, Coleridge and Tolkien, and T.S. Eliot and H.P. Lovecraft-and in superheroes, especially their origins in the comic books and pulp magazines of the early twentieth-century. Dr. recently taught "GC 380G: Superheroes and Theology" at Martin Luther University College at Wilfrid Laurier University. For an abstract/synopsis see
SYNOPSIS
Superheroes occupy our collective imagination. They also demand our critical attention. I ask, "Can Kierkegaard help us understand them?" I think he can-but superheroes are a diverse group. A focus is needed. In this paper, I begin at the beginning, with Superman-particularly as he was created and defined by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the years 1938-1939. I argue that Kierkegaard helps us understand superheroes by providing perspective on this moment of their creation: Kierkegaard and Siegel and Shuster are engaged in parallel enterprises. Kierkegaard creates his pseudonyms; Siegel and Shuster create Superman. Both create fictional characters whom they use to undertake a social critique-and to open their readers to new possibility. At the centre of this possibility, each places a messiah figure with a dual identity: the God-man or Superman. Comparing and contrasting the work of Kierkegaard and Siegel and Shuster, we begin to gain purchase on superheroes in general, and a new perspective on Kierkegaard himself.
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