BOOK REVIEWS
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to address their poverty. However, her article is still more significant in light of its central
focus upon the Operation of metaphorical race (i.e. human, vampire, and werewolf)
within the saga.
The section on reception follows the pattem set by the first, presenting
numerous chapters on Twilight fandom that nonetheless treat the matter from diverse
perspectives and through varying psychological, cultural, and reception theories. DuBois’
article utilizing Freud’s concept of the “death drive” is particularly interesting in its
attempts to deconstmct the emotional “trauma” experienced by readers of the series’
concluding novel. However, DriscoH’s exploration of Twilight as a choice between
different modes of “being a girl,” as well as Hills, Goletz, and Gilbert’s respective
chapters on inter-fandom, anti-fandom, and Twi-haters prove equally compelling,
especially through their combined efforts to provide a more inclusive definition of
fandom. This section Stands out as the strongest within the collection.
The final section, on adaptation, though interesting, contains only three
chapters, leaving it underdeveloped alongside the preceding explorations. Still, the
articles on the Twilight films provide astute, in-depth analysis. In some ways more
appropriate to the second section of this collection, the final chapter, on Korean reception
of the franchise, nicely concludes the volume. Demonstrating that the series has been
received similarly in both Korea and the United States, this chapter concludes that in
Korea, it has nonetheless been relegated to inferior Status due to its specifically female
marketing. However, the authors stop short of overtly acknowledging the possibility that
this may further link the saga’s reception in both cultures.
The collection’s thirteen entries offer fresh approaches to Twilight criticism,
which though related, prove distinct even from one another. Moreover, many, if not all,
of the chapters refer to the contradictions inherent within not only the series itself, but
within its fandom, creating an unspoken cohesion that transcends individual articles.
However, the introduction does not appear to acknowledge this cohesion, leaving the
collection’s abrupt ending without a formal conclusion to diminish the overall sense of
unity. Aside from this lack, the collection’s greatest failing is a reductive general
tendency by the majority of the contributors to assume that Twilight fans are universally
female.
Sarah Pawlak, University of Nevada Las Vegas
The Meaning of Superhero Comic Books
Terrence R. Wandtke
McFarland Publishing, 2012 (mcfarla