Open AccessDeceit, Desire and the Graphic Novel. Watchmen in the Age of Terror
Author(s) -
Erik Buys
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
xiphias gladius
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2603-6088
DOI - 10.32466/eufv-xg.2018.1.517.79-92
Subject(s) - scapegoat , denial , humanity , mechanism (biology) , power (physics) , psychology , psychoanalysis , aesthetics , epistemology , philosophy , theology , physics , quantum mechanics
The graphic novel Watchmenrepresents a textbook example of literature's revelatory power concerning the mimetic aspects of human desire and interaction. It also describes the scapegoat mechanism as a recurring process that is foundational to human culture. Both themes come together in Tales of the Black Freighter, a tragic "story within the story" of Watchmen, revealing the bleak truth about humanity's denial of the mimetic aspects of human desire and of the scapegoat mechanism.