CNX 182: Gods, Monsters, and (Super)Heroes
Welcome to the research guide for CNX 182!
This guide contains links to library databases and books in our collection. It is organized by kind of source - primary, secondary, tertiary - and intended to be the starting point for your research. To search all of our major databases and collections at once, use the Discover search box on the College Library homepage: https://library.fandm.edu/home.
Primary Sources
American Indian Myths and Legends by
More than 160 tales from eighty tribal groups gives us a rich and lively panorama of the Native American mythic heritage. From across the continent comes tales of creation and love; heroes and war; animals, tricksters, and the end of the world. In addition to mining the best folkloric sources of the nineteenth century, the editors have also included a broad selection of contemporary Native American voices. With black-and-white illustrations throughout Selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library
ISBN: 9780394740188Publication Date: 1985-08-12
Other useful guides
Secondary Sources
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowComprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
- MLA/Modern Language Association International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowComprehensive index of articles, book chapters and essays in literature, languages, and folklore. Features content published from the 1920s to the present.
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new windowThis resource is the combination of Anthropology Index and Anthropological Literature. Provides extensive worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Covers over 2500 journals, 19th century to the present. Updated quarterly.
- JStor This link opens in a new windowA collection of full-text articles from over 3000 scholarly journals, many dating from the nineteenth-century to the last 4 or 5 years. A growing number of titles are available through the current issues, as part of their "Current Scholarship Program". Select Advanced Search to strategically search amongst 45 disciplines. Choose PDF from within JStor to properly view and print articles. For convenience, JStor is now searchable on Facebook.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowProvides access to scholarly journals and eBooks in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Dates of coverage varies per title.
Enter the Superheroes by
Ever since the first appearances of Superman and Batman in comic books of the late 1930s, superheroes have been a staple of the popular culture landscape. Though initially created for younger audiences, superhero characters have evolved over the years, becoming complex figures that appeal to more sophisticated readers. While superhero stories have grown ever more popular within broader society, however, comics and graphic novels have been largely ignored by the world of academia. In Enter the Superheroes: American Values, Culture, and the Canon of Superhero Literature, Alex S. Romagnoli and Gian S. Pagnucci argue that superheroes merit serious study, both within the academy and beyond. By examining the kinds of graphic novels that are embraced by the academy, this book explains how superhero stories are just as significant. Structured around key themes within superhero literature, the book delves into the features that make superhero stories a unique genre. The book also draws upon examples in comics and other media to illustrate the sociohistorical importance of superheroes--from the interplay of fans and creators to unique narrative elements that are brought to their richest fulfillment within the world of superheroes. A list of noteworthy superhero texts that readers can look to for future study is also provided. In addition to exploring the important roles that superheroes play in children's learning, the book also offers an excellent starting point for discussions of how literature is evolving and why it is necessary to expand the traditional realms of literary study. Enter the Superheroes will be of particular interest to English and composition teachers but also to scholars of popular culture and fans of superhero and comic book literature.
ISBN: 9780810891722Publication Date: 2013-01-01
On the Origin of Superheroes by
Most readers think that superheroes began with Superman's appearance in Action Comics No. 1, but that Kryptonian rocket didn't just drop out of the sky. By the time Superman's creators were born, the superhero's most defining elements--secret identities, aliases, disguises, signature symbols, traumatic origin stories, extraordinary powers, self-sacrificing altruism--were already well-rehearsed standards. Superheroes have a sprawling, action-packed history that predates the Man of Steel by decades and even centuries. On the Origin of Superheroes is a quirky, personal tour of the mythology, literature, philosophy, history, and grand swirl of ideas that have permeated western culture in the centuries leading up to the first appearance of superheroes (as we know them today) in 1938. From the creation of the universe, through mythological heroes and gods, to folklore, ancient philosophy, revolutionary manifestos, discarded scientific theories, and gothic monsters, the sweep and scale of the superhero's origin story is truly epic. We will travel from Jane Austen's Bath to Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars to Owen Wister's Wyoming, with some surprising stops along the way. We'll meet mad scientists, Napoleonic dictators, costumed murderers, diabolical madmen, blackmailers, pirates, Wild West outlaws, eugenicists, the KKK, Victorian do-gooders, detectives, aliens, vampires, and pulp vigilantes (to name just a few). Chris Gavaler is your tour guide through this fascinating, sometimes dark, often funny, but always surprising prehistory of the most popular figure in pop culture today. In a way, superheroes have always been with us: they are a fossil record of our greatest aspirations and our worst fears and failings.
ISBN: 9781609383817Publication Date: 2015-11-01
Super-History by
In the less than eight decades since Superman's debut in 1938, comic book superheroes have become an indispensable part of American society and the nation's dominant mythology. They represent America's hopes, dreams, fears, and needs. As a form of popular literature, superhero narratives have closely mirrored trends and events in the nation. This study views American history from 1938 to 2010 through the lens of superhero comics, revealing the spandex-clad guardians to be not only fictional characters but barometers of the place and time in which they reside. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
ISBN: 9780786490356Publication Date: 2012-04-03
Tertiary (Reference) Sources
- Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library - GVRL) This link opens in a new windowA collection of reference ebooks in the following subject areas: Biography, Business, History, Law, Literature, Medicine, Nation and World, Religion, Science, Social Science, World Literature and Its Times.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowThousands of entries published in Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias.
The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend by
This encyclopedia provides an overview of approximately 3000 myths and legends from around the world and throughout the ages. These include evrything from Aesop's fables to the Viking gods and goddesses to the stories of the Ancient Greeks and Romans that form the basis of western lore.
ISBN: 0816047081Publication Date: 2004-02-01
Dictionary of Classical Mythology by
Jenny March's acclaimed Dictionary of Classical Mythology, first published in 1998 but long out of print, has been extensively revised and expanded including a completely new set of beautiful line-drawing illustrations for this Oxbow edition. It is a comprehensive A - Z guide to Greek and Roman mythology. All major myths, legends and fables are here, including gods and goddesses, heroes and villains, dangerous women, legendary creatures and monsters. Characters such as Achilles and Odysseus have extensive entries, as do epic journeys and heroic quests, like that of Jason and the Argonauts to win the Golden Fleece, all alongside a plethora of information on the creation of the cosmos, the many metamorphoses of gods and humans, and the Trojan War, plus more minor figures - nymphs, seers, kings, rivers, to name but a few. In this superbly authoritative work the myths are brilliantly retold, along with any major variants, and with extensive translations from ancient authors that give life to the narratives and a sense of the vibrant cultures that shaped the development of classical myth. The 172 illustrations give visual immediacy to the words, by showing how ancient artists perceived their gods and heroes. The impact of myths on ancient art is also explored, as is and their influence in the postclassical arts, emphasising the ongoing inspiration afforded by the ancient myths. Also included are two maps of the ancient world, a list of the ancient sources and their chronology, the more important genealogies, and an index of recurrent mythical motifs.
ISBN: 9781782976363Publication Date: 2014-05-31
Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend by
The Scandanavian imagination inspires our culture in hundreds of ways, from our words for days and months to customs common in most of our holidays to popular phenomena such as Harry Potter and the Tolkien legends. The entire cast of gods and trolls, heroes and monsters, lands and beliefs, receives a comprehensive survey in more than 1,000 entries, photos, charts, and quotations. Many entries draw upon recent archaeological discoveries which shed new light on ancient rituals and peoples, in many cases providing evidence that the even the most fanciful tales turn out to contain a core of factual history.
ISBN: 0304363855Publication Date: 2003-05-01
The Mythology of Native North America by
Most North Americans experience mythology by way of translations of classical texts, and surprisingly few of us are familiar with Coyote, Spider Woman, Water Jar boy, Falling Sky Woman, or the epic of the Blessingway - to name just a few of the stories retold in this collection of significant myths of Native North America. David Leeming and Jake Page, building on the success of their Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine and God: Myths of the Male Divine, have provided an introduction and commentary on seventy-two myths drawn from a variety of cultures and language groups. They honor the Native pantheons, cosmologies, heroes, and heroines first as cultural expressions, then as variations on other mythic narratives to which they may be related, and ultimately as expressions of the larger human experience of mythmaking.
ISBN: 0806130121Publication Date: 1998-04-15
Handbook of Hindu Mythology by
A guide to Hinduism through the ages, offering readers an accessible way of exploring its complex deities, mythological characters, and ideas. * A chronology of the mythological universe and the history of Hinduism, explaining the working and purpose of time and mythic time within the culture * An illustrated A-Z section with entries on major deities, characters, themes, rituals, and beliefs of Hinduism in cultural context
ISBN: 1576071065Publication Date: 2003-10-10
