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Super‐heroes to super languages: American popular culture through South Asian language comics
Author(s) -
Bhatia Tej K.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.0083-2919.2006.00465.x
Subject(s) - comics , popular culture , phenomenon , history , globalization , media studies , representation (politics) , linguistics , literature , sociology , art , politics , political science , law , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
Although under immense pressure from television, movies, and video games, comics are a very effective and non‐intrusive means of introducing American popular culture in South Asia in the age of globalization. The introduction of American comic books in South Asian languages, although a recent phenomenon, has already stimulated the South Asian/Indian appetite for American super‐heroes and comics and has added various new cognitive and (psycho) linguistic dimensions to traditional Indian comics. The paper attempts to account for the creative linguistic strategies employed in the representation of super‐heroes through super languages (Sanskrit and English) in South Asian language comics and to explain the highly diverse appeal and positive perception of comics in South Asia.