Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/63544

Title

Bad fathers: reading the evil father in popular culture through Star Wars, Spider-Man and Twin Peaks

Author(s)

Bainbridge, Jason

Abstract

The father remains an ambiguous figure in popular culture. In most media, it is the absence of the father that forces the protagonist to become the hero. But what occurs when the father is not only present, but also a figure of evil? This paper looks at the representation of the evil father in three popular media texts---Anakin Skywalker in 'Star Wars', Norman Osborn in 'Spider-Man' and Leland Palmer in 'Twin Peaks'. In each text, evil is manifested in the creation of a secondary persona, the alter egos of Darth Vader, the Green Goblin and BOB respectively. This offers the child (or surrogate child) of the father the potential to become as evil as the father by adopting his alter ego. But ultimately it also permits the father to be redeemed, to have the atrocities he has committed to be blamed on this alter ego and therefore insulates and absolves the father from blame. In this way, popular culture representations of the evil father provide an interesting way of mapping how we perceive the evil that fathers do (they are, quite literally, 'not themselves') and how we apportion blame.

Publication type

Book chapter

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology

Source

Mis/representing evil: evil in an interdisciplinary key / Charlene P. E. Burns (ed.), Part 5, pp. 271-296

Publication year

2009

Keyword(s)

Absence;  Evil;  Fatherhood;  Fathers in popular culture;  Popular culture;  Presence;  Representation;  Spider-Man;  Star Wars;  Twin Peaks

Publisher

Freeland, Oxfordshire, Inter-Disciplinary Press

ISBN

9781904710981, 1904710980

Publisher URL

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/books/misrepresenting-evil/

Copyright

Copyright © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2009. All rights reserved.

Peer reviewed