THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL TEMPLATE



Superman v. Trump: The Power of Perelman’s Model and Anti-Model in the Political and Social Arena

STUDENT NAME: Jonathan Evans

COURSE NAME: Introduction to English Studies I

DEPARTMENT: Department of English

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 24 NOV. 2019

ABSTRACT

Superman has always been political. Superman has from the get-go involved himself in politics in America by standing in as a watchful warrior for justice against the evil and corrupt. This is Superman’s true power, his greatest strength: to serve as an exemplar, a model for the behavior and ideals America seeks to project. Superman is a model for what is best in us and has filled that role for decades. By contrast, Donald Trump should be an anti-model. If a model inspires us, then the anti-model should repel us. Trump lies, manipulates, demeans others, and behaves “un-Christian,” and yet he is not repulsive to some. To some, many of whom have political interests of their own, Donald Trump’s anti-model behavior is papered over, excused, and blow off to the effect of making him a model for behavior some might deem un-American. Reconciliation of this dilemma requires a deeper examination of how such modeling resonates so strongly to be defined for generations by a fictional character from comic book.

introduction

From his very first adventures in Action Comics #1, Superman has always been political. In his first adventure he fought for justice, often clashing with political figures and entities along the way. He broke into the governor’s mansion to save an innocent woman and kidnapped a corrupt lobiest who was trying to push through an arms bill. Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster even wrote and created a story for Look magazine in 1940 entitled “How Superman Would End the War.” In the story he accomplishes this by kidnapping Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia respectively and dropping them off at the League of Nations headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands to stand trial. Superman has also from the get go been a model of the behavior we should want to emulate. Chaim Perelman and Laurie Olbrechts-Tyteca, in The New Rhetoric, note that a model as “incit[ing] to an action” others for the positive (262), while an anti-model, say a Lex Luthor, should cause us to turn “away from his course of action” (367). Somehow, mainly by ascending to the presidency, Trump has perverted this paradigm of what constitutes a model vs. anti-model. More than ever, we need Superman to help set this perversion, this alternate version of America, from becoming the reality we will wish to undo every chance we get.

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE

Background

To begin to understand what is going on, one needs to begin by clearly understanding what a model is within a rhetorical framework. Trying to understand what a rhetorical model is and what it does, one must turn to Chaim Perelman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca who laid out this approach in The New Rhetoric when they discuss “The Relations Establishing the Structure of Reality” in argumentation. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca were looking to modernize and expound upon Aristotle’s classical text, The Rhetoric, and reestablish the importance of rhetoric and argumentation in a post-Descartian and scientifically logical world. Alan Gross and Ray Dearin point out that most

knowledge and experience, whether from history or science or even the realms of myth and creative imagination, practitioners of argument spin out altered world views. Examples, illustrations, and models for emulation, if chosen, can bring about an entirely new way of looking at things. (Chaim Perelman 74)

When considering these three approaches to the structure of reality as perceived by an audience, Gross and Dearin point to Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s work to reason out just how powerful and useful examples, illustrations, and models can be in helping shape perception.

In The New Rhetoric, Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca specifically assert that arguments of authority have three forms, either “as an example, [where] it makes generalization possible; as an illustration, [where] it provides support for an already established regularity; [or] as a model, [where] it encourages imitation” (350). Superman could be applied to of all three of these forms. As an example, Superman represents American’s arête by providing a benchmark or, to borrow from Scott McCloud, “amplification through simplification,” of what America stands for (Understanding Comics 30). As an illustration, Superman helps provide visual support for the kinds of heroic deeds that audiences expect from those who assert themselves as hero, forming the stereotype or archetype of those actions. These actions then in turn provide the basis of Superman as a model, where his behavior, and to a degree his actions, others look to and are inspired by (such a specific example), and generating an emulation of that behavior in others.

For Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, the idea of the model falls within a realm of conduct, a way of conducting and behaving, because, within this realm, “behavior may serve, not only to establish or illustrate a general rule, but also to incite to an action inspired by it” (362). So, the idea is meant to represent and “illustrate” (according to this argument) American excellence or virtue. By his actions then, Superman is meant, as a model, to inspire similar behavior in others. This interpretation of him through his actions rather than his powers is a point where many misread or misinterpret Superman as a character. This misinterpretation comes from a failure to realize that it is his choice of actions and behavior toward others that demonstrates and gives examples of the values he represents. (It is these values that Superman really inspires emulated action.) Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca point out that the imitation of a model is not always “spontaneous” but can be accomplished by “One person” who wishes to “induce it [imitation] in another. Argument can be based either on the rule of justice or on a model that one will be asked to follow . . .” (363). Superman serves as a model intentionally designed to induce emulation and inspired action by his example in others. This can be seen and heard in a speech given in the movies when Superman (Christopher Reeve) listens to a parting message from a hologram of his father, Jor-El (Marlon Brando). This message declares: “They [humanity] can be a great people, Kal-El [Superman’s birth name], if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you . . . my only son” (Superman: The Motion Picture). There of course is a basic identification here with Western religious conceptions of a messiah, particularly Christian doctrine. Additionally, there exists here the idea that Superman was specifically sent to Earth in the hopes that he would become a model for others, to be a means of showing others a better way. The purpose of Superman then is intentional with imitation specifically encouraged.

Significance

It is important to understand the ways that Superman, as the archetype of the modern American superhero, represents a system. In the medium of the comic book format, Superman provides a means for exploring and expressing, via a modern narrative form, the communication of the abstract ideas that make up American culture. This argument, that Superman is a model for what America wishes to be vs. Trump, the model of what America has been and can be, remains a topic worth discussion in our now fractured nation. Remembering who Superman was and what he represented, is something that we as a nation should seek to remember as something that offers us true unity and bringing us together, rather than forcing us to small groups of identification ignoring our consubstantial nature.

LITERATURE REVIEW

This is your literature review. I want you to be able, using research gathered, to write up an overview of what the current literature and material says. This should be anywhere from 3-6 paragraphs.

CONSULT:

research methodology

In 2-3 paragraphs communicate to me what your possible game plan is for exploring and diving deeper into this research on your topic. What do you hope to go into? Where might you look for sources?

references

Use the MLA 8th Edition style of referencing. I would like you to have somewhere between 4-8 sources for this Proposal.

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