Focusing on the intersection of superheroes with themes of sovereignty, this book explores their portrayal in relation to law, violence, legitimacy, and authority. Drawing on various critical theorists, it contributes significantly to comic studies and the literature surrounding superhero narratives, offering a nuanced analysis of their complex roles in society.
In the age of Brexit and Donald Trump, the radical right has gained significant popularity, characterized by a rhetoric of xenophobia, discrimination and “hate speech”. This book examines why the politics of hate and ideologies of the far-right are on the rise and argues that to counter it we must challenge the sense of social and economic precarity this politics feeds off. Hate in Precarious Times examines five distinct types of precarity, covering threats to a particular way of life; fear of apocalyptic terrorism; the insecurity of austerity, and low-waged jobs in the wake of the Financial Crisis; challenges to privilege; and the spread of disinformation in a “post-truth” age. In this book, Neal Curtis seeks the root of what causes ordinary people to identify with far-right ideologies and asks what can be done to counter the conditions underpinning this.
Idiotism examines the condition of society in late capitalism where the market logic of neoliberalism has become the new "common sense," taken as the model for the organization and management of all aspects of social life. Using the Greek word idios, meaning "private," Neal Curtis calls this privatization of the world "idiotism."Constructing a new vocabulary with which to understand contemporary society, Curtis examines "idiotism" across the spheres of economics, politics, and culture, drawing on the philosophy and political theories of Martin Heidegger, Louis Althusser, Franco Berardi, Jacques Rancière, and Cornelius Castoriadis. Idiotism recasts our conception of the new neoliberal "common sense," presenting it as not simply a case of false consciousness, but an ontological problem related to our being-in-the-world.