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SHS of Conferences 50, 01093 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185001093 CILDIAH-2018

Linguistic and Sociocultural Features of The American Movies

Olga Kuznetsova*, Nadezhda Karacheva, Ivan Solsoev, and Mikhail Kuznetsov

Foreign Languages Department, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia

Abstract. The article analyzes the linguistic and sociocultural features of the movies. The purpose of this article is to identify the distinctive features of American super hero movies, as well as to analyze the changes that have occurred in the images of the main characters and their socio-cultural preconditions.

Introduction - In 1933, «» published a similar (but with fewer pages) «Funnies on Nowadays comics are constantly present in our lives - in Parade». advertising, magazines and on the Internet. - In the same year, «: A Carnival of Comic books are a developed industry, especially in the Comics» was published by «Eastern Color» in United States of America. It seems relevant to consider collaboration with «Dell». This publication, intended for comics precisely as a linguistic and sociocultural sale in the network of stores «Woolworth», opened the phenomenon in order to follow changes in the culture story of the American comics. The price was not and traditional values of the American people. «Scholars indicated, and the magazine was sold for a dime a copy, have opened up many new avenues of exploration as which became the standard price for comics for years to they begin tracing ways in which modern culture come. In 1934, the edition became periodic, having engages with the world» [1]. In addition, modern generated a whole wave of imitators. In 1938, the American mass culture is mainly aimed at promoting the magazine «Action Comics # 1» appeared, presenting the American way of life and Western values in other world with a new hero - , and with it a new countries, which also makes the study of various genre – super hero comics» [2]. sociocultural phenomena of this country relevant. «There In «The Secret History of Comics» [2] the author is a lack of works on the American comic’s history. gives the following periodization of the history of Meanwhile, the developing industry of painted stories American comics: provides the need for the information about the history of the industry to a broad audience, and it would be The Golden Magazines were sold in huge foolish to deny it» [2]. Age editions. The most popular form of The purpose of this article is to identify the (1938-1950) entertainment of Americans before distinctive features of American super hero movies, as this period was reading pulp-fiction well as to analyze the changes that have occurred in the (cheap paperback books printed on images of the main characters and their socio-cultural low-quality paper), by the end of the preconditions. decade, the publishers of the ««pulp» Results and discussion. massively mastered the publication of Comics – a kind of «commercial art», a paradoxical comic books. National Publications phenomenon of the post-cultural era. Comics first (DC Comics now), which launched a appeared in the US in the late 19th century, and were new cultural trend with the release of presented in the form of funny pictures series (the Action Comics, created a series for modernized form of the alphabet) aimed at teaching many other superheroes. , children to read and write. «By the term «comics» we , , mean what the Americans call a «comic book», that is a and Sand Man crushed the kind of separated comics magazine. The birth of this gangsters on the colored pages of primordially American form did not happen their editions. The main competitor immediately: was the publishing house Fawcett, - In 1929, the publishing house «» which released comics about Billy released a sixteen-page newspaper comic book called Batson adventures, a boy capable of «». turning into the mighty Captain

* Corresponding author: [email protected] © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). SHS Web of Conferences 50, 01093 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185001093 CILDIAH-2018

Marvel with the magic word turning point was his comic «Shazam!». The same period includes «Challengers of the Unknown», the first steps of the Marvel company which generated a whole wave of (first called Timely), they, among similar comic books. In these stories, other things, published a super- ordinary people (brilliant scientists, popular series about the adventures of of course, handsome athletes, etc.) . faced sci-fi threats such as alien The peak of the superheroes invasions or sinister travelers in time. popularity was achieved during the In the same period, the first union Second World War. By the end of the of comic books and television took 1940s, new genres gradually took up place - the series «Adventures of place: crime (stories about gangsters), Superman» was so popular that one horror (horror comics, either of the minor characters, the young exploiting popular cinematographic reporter Jimmy Olsen, received his and literary images, or printing own comic book series. original stories with O. Henry finals), The era ended when DC Comics (about military returned to the pages of their adventures), romance comic genre magazines Flash – the hero of the (sentimental stories). Superheroes Golden Age, but in a slightly overtook the «overproduction crisis»: modified form: another alter ego, huge quantities with low quality. another suit, but the same abilities. Eventually, by 1951, most of the While the «old» Flash mostly fought superhero series had been closed or with gangsters, the new one dealt redone to meet the new genre with fantastic villains. formats. The Silver Age Thanks to the success of Flash, The Comic- This period is sometimes (1956-1971) DC again took up superheroes. Their Code Century considered a part of the Golden Age, colleagues from Timely-Atlas (1950-1956) and sometimes is called the Atomic became Marvel: in ten years they Age (the world situation of the fifties, created a galaxy of the most popular of course, affected comics as well). heroes – the Fantastic Four, Spider- Meanwhile, these six years are Man, the Avengers, X-Men, strikingly different from the previous Daredevil and many others. era, and the theme of peaceful DC again occupied the screen in and nuclear war was one of the the late sixties with the series features of that time. «Batman», which became popular The period of decreasing interest even in Japan, where it was based on in superheroes coincided with the manga. Marvel launches a series of anti-comic hysteria that spread over animated series, performed in the the US in the fifties. Extensive advanced (and extremely cheap) harassment, deployed in the media, «motion comics» style. reached the Congress, and as a result, Collecting comics came with the so-called Comic Code was collecting coins and stamps. From established. Comics that did not fit this time, this was not a hobby for the accepted standards simply did not children any more, but a serious appear on the shelves and widespread business: catalogs were produced, distribution on newsstands, which in intermediary companies started those days, when there were no looking for old circulations, and specialized comic bookstores, meant prices were rising. If at the beginning 80% of the success. «Thanks to of the Silver Age the target audience Comic-Code crime and horror genres of comics were twelve-year-olds, by virtually disappeared from the market the beginning of the seventies until the end of the sixties. Instead of publishers began to focus on students. classic horror came a new genre - Feedback between editors and readers monster comics, such as «King occurred through the letters and Kong» and «Godzilla». editorial appeals, the creators were created the super- not just a couple of lines in the corner popular Captain America (and in fact of the title page, but recognizable laid the foundation for military comic persons ready to make contact. By the books), and in so doing developed end of the sixties, the first comic- another genre. In the fifties, Kirby festivals were arranged and gaining worked in a variety of genres, but the strength.

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The comic book finally took a There were new publishers, and modern look: one or two stories on underground comics started being the magazine, the cover anticipates able to compete with the mainstream. the coming story’s conflicts. Fiction In addition, manga in America for the became the main genre, especially in first time appeared. With increased superhero form. interest in the old comic books, the The Bronze A new era began with the return new generation was acquainted with Age of Jack Kirby from Marvel company the works of Will Eisner, old horror (1971-1986) to DC Comics, where he created an comics and «forgotten» superheroes. ambitious (but unimportantly The authors of the comics now accepted by readers) project «Fourth took the rock star model: they World», developing his ideas about performed at festivals, went on tours the deities of other worlds, laid down around the world, and got fabulous in the annex to the story of the Torah, money. Religious status was found in «Stories of Asgard», which he the works of Frank Miller, Alan painted for Marvel. Moore, Grant Morrison and many A little later DC planned «DC others. The names of the creators on Explosion», the release of a huge covers became more important than number of new series, which would the names of the characters, an turn into the biggest crisis in the unthinkable story in fact for the history of the publishing house. previous eras of comic magazines. Marvel successfully overcame the Subjects of comics became gloomier same crisis by obtaining a license to and «more mature», which, in the release comic books based on «Star end, would give birth to the next era. Wars» and expanding the market Baroque / The This era was created by three outside of America by opening a Image Age Marvel people (Todd MacFarlane, branch of Marvel UK. Science fiction (1992–1998) Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee) became one of in comics acquired features of the industry leaders. There was a psychedelic culture, and fantasy clear primacy of the visual side over (thanks to the series about Conan the storyline. The style of artist-stars from Marvel and about Varlord at became a pass to the world of big DC) becaming one of the main comic comic books; as a result, by the end genres of the seventies. of the era, even one of its lawmakers, Jack Kirby returned to Marvel, Rob Layfeld, began to be perceived where he worked on both old as mediocrity. characters, and continued the line of In general, this period can be «Fourth World» in the comic book characterized as decadent. After the «The Eternal». Then, depressed by commercial success of the eighties, a low sales, he went into the world of predictable crisis of overproduction animation, where he once started his followed, leading to the closure of career, and occasionally drew new many publishers. comics. The result was a change in the Television and cinema are standards of comic issues: improving increasingly turning to comics and the quality of printing and paper, the very successfully from both positions, dominance of computer coloring over as art and as business. manual. Having positioned itself at The innovation of the Bronze the beginning of the era as the main Age – «illustrated magazines» that engine of the production of new allowed the bypass of the Comic- journals, collecting did not justify its Code. European comics are finally expectations: the models that were becoming available to a wide range of initially positioned as collectors’ American readers with the release of items were produced in huge Heavy Metal magazine. numbers, which led to a predictable The Iron Age / «The Dark Age» is the time of an fall in prices. The Dark Age, unprecedented expansion of English The author's branch of DC- (1986-1992) authors. By analogy with rock music Vertigo became very popular. Marvel of the sixties, it was called the experiments in this area failed (even a «British Invasion». A new format for whole series of magazines under the publishing comics appeared – the patronage of the most popular writer «graphic novel», it allowed comics to Clive Barker). get on the shelves of bookstores. The Dynamic After the biggest crisis in the

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Age history of Marvel, which led, in Films based on comic books (1998-2004) particular, to the announcement of are increasingly becoming incredibly bankruptcy, there was a reorientation lucrative, and Marvel creates a to a new teen market: the launch of «movie universe»: every year films the Ultimate and Max series. DC was come out connected, attracting more not lagging behind in trying to reach and more readers to comics. Social a new audience, and Image from networks bring the publisher-reader publishers of all kinds of kitsch are feedback virtually to the absolute. turning into worthy competitors. The There are large online libraries of underground scene went massively to comics, and web journalism extends the web comics’ format. the possibilities of exploring the Cinema increasingly appealed to history of the phenomenon. comic books, and by the end of the era, the cycle «comics-film-video There are many definitions of comics, but all of them game-series of toys» finally born in have in common that the comic is a series of images previous epochs was finally being through which a story is told. According to most formed. Computer production researchers, comics are the unity of narrative and visual captured all stages of creating a action. Scott McCloud, the author of The Understanding comic book, which in an comics, offers a concise definition; a «sequence of unprecedented way reduced the images» and more completely «adjacent pictures and prepress preparation. The industry other images in a semantic sequence» [3]. deftly tried to avoid crises of In linguistics the comic is a verb-iconic message, the overproduction. Another important textuality of which (and, more broadly, point is the popularization of reading communicativity) is built on the constructive interaction comics in electronic form. Also the of the three information series included in it: alphabetic possibility of communication text, graphics and paragraphs. Therefore, the question between authors and readers in virtual arises whether it is possible to consider this message as a space gave dynamics to the process of text. According to E.V. Kozlov, «a sequence of signs of creating comic books - announcing any order, united by goals, consisting in the most became a kind of game in «cheating adequate expression of a semantic superstructure, can be the deceiver», when the readers understood as a text» [4]. E.E. Anisimova writes that in together try to figure out what the semiotics, iconic language is not fundamentally different authors are going to do. The illusion from verbal language: «Any image created by a person is of involvement in the process, which abstract, because it denotes the object's properties came from sports and television, is abstracted by man. In this function, the image does not becoming a characteristic feature of differ from the word. Both the word and the image can the digital age industry. express concepts of different levels of abstractness» [5]. By the end of the era there is a Thus, the presence of non-verbal means in the comic tendency for «nostalgia», which was shows itself, in other words, paralinguistic means allow born with a wave of reissues of the us to attribute it to the texts, but it determines its eighties. Large publishers are belonging to a certain group of texts – creolized texts. increasingly turning to their heritage, «Comics feature two distinguishable semiotic tracks publishing it in all possible forms and (images and words), because the images can represent formats. multiple events going on at the same time, and because The Modern The modern era is the era of the composition and layout of the page guides the Age major «events». DC, starting this readers’ gaze as it structures these simultaneous events (2004- ...) glorious tradition back in the eighties, into foreground and background» [6]. now and then resorted to «crises» Comics, nevertheless, are more pictures, so it is (stories related to many series important to simplify all the phrases, accompanying published by the publisher), and lead actions, expressions of emotions and vocabulary, which, to «reboots» of their fictional in turn, lead to the creation of onomatopoeic units. universe, followed by a similar Comics do not contain complex vocabulary, which scheme, they began to use in Marvel. requires such translational transformations, as, for Electronic copies make comics example, semantic concretization. In other words, the (especially comic books of the past) language used by the heroes of the comics and the available anywhere in the world. author's notes, in most cases, are intended for quick Reissues of the classics of past perception, which requires such expressions, words, and epochs acquire a cult character, as phrases of maximum simplicity. «The constraints of well as the publication of «nostalgic» language are eluded at the expense of communicability» comics about the characters of the [7]. Thus, without detailed analysis, we can say that to past. recreate sounds and images, interjections and onomatopoetic lexical units are used. On the pages of

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American comics, they often use interjections and a set Universe started in 2008 with «Iron Man» with Robert of random letters to represent sounds and create an Downey Jr. For several years, Marvel Studios did not appropriate situation for the comic book. Thus, the have the funds to distribute their films, and they made a lexical units «FSSHAAAMM»; «THOK»; «WHACK» deal with two companies – Universal Pictures and do not carry any specific meaning, the main function of Paramount Pictures, according to which these companies these interjections is to create a «background» color and took over the distribution of the film (marketing, PR, and give the emotional brightness to the picture. «When the so on). When Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment in characters’ speech is presented, especially in the direct 2009, Marvel Studios became a part of Walt Disney mode, the reader will accept it without questioning Pictures, and the company had the opportunity to whether or not the dialogue really took place in the distribute its films. Walt Disney Pictures even had to buy story» [8]. Interjections, found on the pages of American out the remaining rights from Paramount Pictures to get comic books, are in many respects similar to those full control over the production and distribution of lexical units that can be chosen as direct equivalents in Marvel Studios. It is also important to mention the the Russian language. This can be explained by the fact numerous TV series that are formally inscribed in the that the structure of English and Russian as languages movie-project – the projects of ABC, Netflix, Hulu and belonging to the Indo-European group is similar, other channels. The Marvel Universe began in 2008 with therefore, in the translation process, and the search for an Iron Man, and in 2018 the film «Avengers: The Infinity equivalent is not so complicated. War» is released – it sums up everything that the studio Accompanying each action of the hero with similar has been doing for ten years. Ten years have passed lexical units, the author of the comic gives an emotional within the films themselves. Similar cases have already color to the plot and «animates» the characters. occurred in the movies. For example, in the Harry Potter American comics, whose idea, in most cases, is aimed at franchise actors who performed the role of magicians describing the adventures of superheroes, are from the very first films changed with the fans. characterized by the extremely rare use of interjections But the movie universe goes further. Remember the and any other lexical units to convey the state of the beginning of the «Avengers: Age of Ultron», where a hero, his thoughts or the surrounding atmosphere. team of heroes fought with Hydra? Most of this battle American comics, in general, contain many replicas, was left behind. Remember Bruce Banner in Ragnarok, which can include not only the expressions used in who was horrified at the thought that he spent several everyday speech, but also complex utterances years in the image of the Hulk. And after all, the containing, for example, scientific terminology. In audience also has not seen the character since his American comics, known throughout the world, heroes appearance in the «Avengers: Age of Ultron». We learn often use complex and lengthy phrases in their syntactic what happened to the Hulk, from his narration. This is a and grammatical structure of their sentences. In many very unusual approach. It means that the universe lives respects, what the hero says depends on how he is even when the audience does not see it. We see how the represented in the comic book story, to what circle of characters grow old, change and develop. The cinema people he belongs to, his age, life experience and the had not yet seen anything of such a high level. main occupation in life, therefore, often, the pages of The newest DC universe and media franchise, based American comic books can be found to be very on the comics of the publishing house DC Comics and «intricate» and it is difficult for foreigners to understand developed by the film company Warner Bros. Pictures, the vocabulary. There is also a place for onomatopoietic was launched in 2013 by Zach Snyder's «Man of Steel», lexicon and interjections on the pages of American in which Henry Cavill played the role of Superman. At comics: ««BHOOOM»«, ««ZZZHHHRRRWWW»«, the moment, five movies have already been released in interjections perform an «audio» function, because the the framework of this film series. Warner Bros. Pictures plot requires the creation of a certain atmosphere, which plans to shoot twelve more films of the series with a mix the receptor feels when reading a comic. of the plot, but with different characters that will The 21st century was marked by the emergence of a sometimes interact with each other. new concept of «movie universe». It has its own history, A superhero is a phenomenon common to the stunning imagination of infrastructure, objects, laws, American comic book and is widely regarded as an phenomena and characters. Within the limits of a single integral part of the genre. The classical understanding of movie, the chronological order of the release of films a super hero is a fictional character endowed with does not play a determining role. The so-called timeline extraordinary physical abilities («super powers»), which can evolve regardless of the calendar schedule of the he directs to accomplish feats for the common good [10]. releases. It means that all the characters already exist in After the debut of a prototypical superhero named the given universe, even if they are not present in the Superman in 1938, the idea of a superhero – from short, picture directly. The «Harry Potter Universe», «Aliens episodic adventure stories to perennial and multi-series Universe», «The Middle Earth Universe» are popular sagas – became dominant for American comics, from universes. Among comic books, now competing with which it subsequently spread to other media. Superman, each other and constantly expanding, there are two similar to the hero of myths, based on characters such as movie universes – Marvel and DC. Samson and Hercules, would change the world in the «The comic book universe is adventurous, days of his creators Siegel and Schuster and fight for mystifying, and filled with heroes, villains, and justice. 1938 – the world is on the edge of the Second cosplaying Comic-Con attendees» [9]. The Marvel World War. The appearance of a superman standing

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guard for good and justice and capable of resisting any skinned characters (Warrior, Black Panther) and threat could not pass unnoticed. In the universe of characters with reduced physical abilities (for example, comics, the first type of superheroes appeared – a hero Daredevil) increased in the films. It seems that the with superhuman abilities. As a rule, these heroes have guardians of the Galaxy, Gomorrah, Nebula and the an extraterrestrial origin, for instance, Superman, the god whole inflorescence of extraterrestrial beings can also be of thunder Thor or . considered as promotion of the equality of peoples and The comics boom began with the appearance of tolerance to the representatives of another race. Spider-Man in August 1962. The character was created by Stan Lee and painted by Steve Ditko. Comics about Spider-Man produced a real explosion of reader interest Conclusion [10]. From this moment, active introduction of the Thus, the primary analysis showed that the movie- comics as a popular genre into American culture began. universe created by American comic books, shows The wave of reader interest produced various thematic steady growth and is gaining increasing popularity, clubs, fan clubs and comic book festivals. Rare old which is confirmed by the unprecedented gross box issues of graphic stories were sold at auctions for office from the rental of films about superheroes. As for fabulous sums. The end of the 80's was marked by the the very image of the superhero, under the influence of beginning of a new boom – screenings of comic books. socio-cultural processes, he underwent significant In 1989, on the fiftieth anniversary of Batman a film of changes and departed from the classical Superman, the same name was released. Next, a whole series of gaining a variety of options. It should be noted that the movies taken from graphic histories began. comics and their screen versions are of interest for Batman appeared in contrast to Superman, and in the further study both in linguistics (in connection with the competing universe of Iron Man. This is a different kind emerging need to create a dictionary of the superhero of superhero; the hero in the mask. They do not have universe (timeline, movie universe, crossover, etc.)), and super abilities or extraterrestrial origin, but they have an from a socio-cultural perspective. Through comics, an outstanding intellect. The appearance of this kind of hero introduction into the mass consciousness of the most is an appeal to society to act. The image of the hero basic and newest values of culture is carried out. For seems to say that in order to do the best, one does not example, it is interesting that along with positive need superpowers, but must simply follow the principles characters, so-called antiheroes (Harley Quinn, Joker, of freedom and justice. Venom, etc.) are also gaining unprecedented popularity, There is a whole galaxy of superheroes that have and the reasons for this phenomenon can become the become so unconsciously as a result of an accident or object of further research. experiment. They include Spider-Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Doctor Manhattan, Deadpool, etc. Each of them, having received new abilities, passes through a References turning point and decides to serve either good or evil. When uttering the word «superhero», the first 1. G. Kovacs, C.W. Marshall, Classics and Comics associations are Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron (Oxford University Press, 2011) Man, Captain America, etc. Anyway, from the first 2. A. Volkov, K. Kutuzov, The secret history of screen versions to the present, the superhero world was comics (AST, Moscow, 2017) predominantly male. Women roles occupied the second 3. W. Eisner, Theory of Comics & Sequential Art plan and boiled down to the image of the superhero’s (Poorhouse Press, 1985) girlfriend in trouble. A huge number of superheroes on the pages of comic books had no place in the movie- 4. Ye. Kozlov, The communication of the comics (in universe until recently. Cinematography is a reflection of the textual and semiotic aspects) (Volgograd, 1999) social processes, and, therefore, very sensitive to 5. Ye. Anisimova, The linguistics of a text and changes in societies mood. In the modern world, gender intercultural communication (based on Creole texts) equality issues are extremely acute. In addition, among (Academia, Moscow, 2003) some of the movements gaining momentum, it is no 6. K. Kukkonen, Contemporary Comics Storytelling longer simply about equality, but about the superiority of (University of Nebraska Press, 2013) women over men. A woman comes to the fore, she wants 7. M. Hannah, Comics and Language: Reimagining to be visible, wants to build a career, be successful, and Critical Discourse on the Form (University Press of supervise. Cinematography immediately reacted to such Mississippi, 2013) sentiments by the fact that they began to introduce female characters into so-called crossovers, and later 8. S. Mario, The Language of Comics (Intertext) even releasing solo films about superheroines. Bright (London: Routledge, 2004) examples can serve as the Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, 9. L. Tim, Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and even anti-heroine Comic Book Universe (Chronicle Book, 2013) Harley Queen, etc. It should be noted that in the pages of 10. S. Beatty, The DC Comics Encyclopedia, comics there are many female images, many of which, Updated and Expanded (DK Publishing, 2008) judging by social attitudes, will get the opportunity to get in the limelight. This happened already in a period of rising tolerance, as a result of which the number of dark-

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