Leadership, Assembled
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Leadership, assembled. A narrative analysis of the construction of leadership in relation to democracy in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Evelin Nyberg Master thesis, 15 hp Supervisor: Media and Communication Studies Ernesto Abalo Sustainable communication Examiner: Spring 2021 Leon Barkho JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY Master thesis, 15 credits School of Education and Communication Media and Communication Science with Specialisation Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden in Sustainable Communication +46 (0)36 101000 Term: Spring 2021 ABSTRACT Writer: Evelin Nyberg Title: Leadership, assembled. Subtitle: A narrative analysis of the construction of leadership in relation to democracy in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Language: English Pages: 50 Superhero film is currently a popular form of entertainment, which during recent years has become political in its content. While research has previously shown that the superhero narrative carries messages of ideology and social issues, little is known of how the film genre communicates regarding leadership. Through examining the narratives in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, this study aims to explore how leadership is constructed in relation to democracy in a democratic context by using the United States as an example. The study utilises theorisations of democracy as well as representation theory, supplemented by three concepts borrowed from the leadership theory trait theory. The narrative analysis and the narrative plot points are used as method with a model of analysis to retrieve the empirical evidence. The study’s results show that the villain, while having a societal motivation which can be considered democratic, mostly represented nondemocratic traits. The superheroes mostly show democratic leadership, but they are not able to solve the conflict with the villain democratically. This suggests that the leadership constructed in a democratic context still contains some limitations, which could be connected to how nondemocratic actions are justified in some situations even in the democratic context. Keywords: Leadership, Democracy, Film, Superheroes, The United States, Popular culture, Democratic culture Table of contents Table of contents ........................................................................................................................ 3 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 2. Aim and research questions .................................................................................................... 7 3. Background ............................................................................................................................ 8 3.1 The culture and the superhero .......................................................................................... 8 3.2 The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the Avengers ............................................ 8 4. Research review ................................................................................................................... 10 4.1 Entertaining ideologies ................................................................................................... 10 4.2 Construction of justice and good and evil ...................................................................... 11 4.3 Differences between superhero and villain .................................................................... 12 4.4 The contribution of this study ........................................................................................ 13 5. Theory .................................................................................................................................. 15 5.1 Democracy ..................................................................................................................... 15 5.2 Representation theory ..................................................................................................... 16 5.2.1 Traits, power, and motivation ................................................................................. 17 6. Method and material ............................................................................................................. 19 6.1 Narrative analysis ........................................................................................................... 19 6.1.1 Narrative plot points ................................................................................................ 20 6.1.2 Model of analysis .................................................................................................... 20 6.2 Material .......................................................................................................................... 22 3 6.3 Limitations and applicability of analysis ....................................................................... 24 7. Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 26 7.1 Peace with our allies ...................................................................................................... 26 7.2 Superheroes do not negotiate with villains .................................................................... 28 7.3 The nondemocratic villain .............................................................................................. 30 7.4 The greater good ............................................................................................................. 33 7.5 The successful superhero majority ................................................................................. 36 8. Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 38 8.1 The inconsistent democracy ........................................................................................... 38 8.2 The insufficient democracy ............................................................................................ 39 8.3 The maintained democracy ............................................................................................ 41 8.4 Suggestions for future research ...................................................................................... 43 9. References ............................................................................................................................ 45 Appendix 1: Character background .......................................................................................... 49 4 1. Introduction Superhero stories are some of the United States’ most profitable and beloved types of narratives (Spencer, 2017). The superheroes are portrayed as leading in defeating the villains, but little is still known about how that leadership portrays democracy. At the same time, superhero leadership has become a metaphor used when analysing populistic leadership. For example, Schneiker (2020, p. 857) presents the concept of the nondemocratic populist as a superhero who is the saviour in times of crisis. Also, the superhero has generated a quite popular discussion regarding the ideologies they represent and their disregard for democratic institutions (see Bainbridge, 2017; Maruo-Schröder, 2019; Phillips, 2010), but how the superhero’s actions represent leadership related to democracy, especially in the most crucial moments of a conflict, have not been explored. Recently, the plot of superhero films has become more political, complicating the perceptions of good and evil. For example, Captain America: Civil War (Russo & Russo, 2016) explores how the superheroes disagree over governmental control over superpowers. In this narrative, both sides of the conflict make solid arguments for their sake and neither of the opposing sides are portrayed as completely right. Furthermore, in the film Avengers: Infinity War (Russo & Russo, 2018) Marvel Studios made the villain Thanos the main character by giving him the traditional narrative of a hero, exploring the villain as a leader with motivations and powers beyond just being evil. Most of the globally successful superhero films are produced in the United States at the same time as the country is considered a leading democratic nation. Thereby, it is interesting to investigate how fictional superpowerful leaders created in this democratic context communicate democracy. Films can communicate messages regarding leadership and democracy, while this is not their main purpose. This is what Matthew Pustz (2012, p. 3) calls “casual learning”. While films are mainly entertainment, they can teach the audience how to interpret the real world by giving context to real complex issues in a fictional format (Pustz, 2012, p. 4). This ability of popular film becomes especially important when considering their portrayals in relation to democracy, which is related to the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations. In particular, the sixteenth goal mentions freedom, protection from violence and corruption, as well as accountable leadership as part of sustainability (General Assembly, 2015, p. 25-26), which could be considered as characteristics of democracy (Gastil, 1994; Tilly, 2007). But there is a lack of knowledge on how leadership with regards to these characteristics are 5 communicated in popular film such as the superhero genre. So, the superhero narrative, while produced as entertainment, must be considered as constructing meaning