The Shadow Knows: The Counter-Fantasy of the American Antihero and Symbolic Divergence in Golden Age Radio |
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| Abstract: | Various radio and pulp incarnations of The Shadow have played a pivotal role in shaping American superhero mythology and cultural unconscious. This essay explores The Shadow's origins within the 1930s, and then utilizes Fantasy Theme Analysis to uncover mythic tensions and conflicts within The Shadow's transition from noir-like dystopian antihero into the more romantic utopian superhero of Orson Welles' 1937 radio program. We conclude by contemplating rhetorical implications for The Shadow's “symbolic divergence,” a fantasy evolving into contradictory counter-fantasies and rhetorical visions in radio and pulps, as a provocative illustration of theoretical debates regarding the psychodynamic functions of rhetorical fantasy. |
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