英文摘要 |
In his 1954 anti-comics book ”Seduction of the Innocent”, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham alleged that Batman comics stimulate homosexual fantasies and that Batman and Robin are gay. This essay examines Michael Chabon's repudiation of Wertham's gay Batman reading in his superhero novel, ”The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” (2000). The reading is focused on the novel's gay protagonist Sam Clay and his perceived preference for adding the boy sidekick to the superhero in his comics career. This hero/sidekick paring becomes controversial in the Kefauver hearings, in which U.S. senators investigated the alleged link between crime comics and the increase of juvenile delinquency, in light of Wertham's gay reading as well as Clay's sexual orientation. In doing so, I first review Chabon's role in elevating the superhero genre in literary studies, Wertham's gay reading and its effect on the arc of the Batman comics in the late 1950s and early '60s. I then focus on the specter of Wertham in Chabon's text, analyzing Chabon's employment of superhero tropes of the boy sidekick and secret identity to invoke and repudiate Wertham's homosexual reading. Lastly, I examine how Chabon justifies his reading of the deep bond between Batman and Robin as one between a father and son by examining Clay's traumatic relationship with his father and the idea of partnership his father inspired in him, as well as his important male relationships. |