The frontier archetypes of american comics (the example of Superman and Guardians of the galaxy)

Abstract

The frontier theory is becoming popular in the humanities in recent decades. Although the Frontier as a historical phenomenon has ceased to exist, as an ideological model Frontier allows us to analyze many of the socio-cultural, economic and even political processes, equipping a researcher with new methodological tools. The author takes as a basis the American school «of myth and symbol», which developed the frontier theory, and analyzes the phenomenon of the comics within the ideological model, arguing that comics as a structural unit of neomythological paradigm of American popular culture, incorporates symbols and archetypes frontier, thereby acquiring new value, not only for the American socio-cultural space, but for the world as a whole. Scenes of Superman, images and archetypes of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and many other superhero «History in Pictures» and are not enough that construct a new model of representation of the frontier, but they produce on its basis a special understanding of the role and place of the subject in a changing world.. The author, based on the analysis of the produced scenes of American superhero comics, concludes that Frontier's culture-factor in American popular culture, which opens in the area of ​​research opportunities and prospects.