Incoherent Texts: The Chronotope of the Superhero

Abstract

“Discontinuities and Multiplicities,” complicates the exploration of superhero revision by examining the genre in terms of narrative temporality. Eco’s famous description of the genre’s sense of time as oneiric is supplemented by approaches drawn from several narrative theorists as well as more superhero-specific scholarship. This approach elucidates significant shifts in the role that revision has played in the construction of superhero texts in the years following Eco’s observations, particularly in the wake of the generic transition from what Henry Jenkins has identified as a paradigm of continuity to one of multiplicity. While this transition has been accompanied by corporate and narrative restrictions limiting radical content, modes of superhero revision have emerged that challenge generic orthodoxies and resist the imposition of continuity and cohesion as ultimate goals.