The Myth of the Student Hero and the “Dreaded Lit Review”

The Superhero

Although students' comics about writing the literature review resemble the autobiographical genre of "memoir" comics, the students' self-mythologizing calls to mind the "superhero" genre. In such comics, students become "god-like." In these myth-making comics, one student strikes a pose with her hands on her hips, a "Superman pose"; in another, the student wears an Olympian golden wreath and is bathed in golden light, suggesting the image of a god.

Some comics even draw on superheroes and super-villains to frame the student myth of doing the literature review. In Nouf AlMarzook's comic, the student's writing of the literature review is framed as necessary to save the human race from annihilation. And when Nouf's comic alter-ego, Zoookk, successfully writes the literature review and defeats the "Villains of the Lit," she is invited by a league of superheroes ("The League of Scheibels") to join them, a god-like superhero.

This page has paths:

This page references: