Full Description
The multiverse has portaled into the mainstream. Entering the Multiverse unpacks the surprising growth of the multiverse in media and popular culture today, and explores how the concept of alternate realities and parallel worlds has acted as a metaphor for centuries.
Edited by leading media and popular culture scholar Paul Booth, this collection explores the many different manifestations of the multiverse across different genres, media, fan-created works, and cultural theory. Each chapter delves into different aspects of the multiverse, including its use as a metaphor, as a scientific reality, and as a media-industry strategy. Addressing the multiplicity of multiversal meanings through multiple perspectives and always with an eye toward engagement with contemporary cultural issues, the chapters also examine various distinctions and contradictions, in order to provide a strong basis for further thinking, writing, and research on the concept of the multiverse. Chapters in this collection tell the story of the multiverse in multiple realities: creative nonfiction, academic essay, screenplay, art, poetry, video, and audio essay.
A compelling read for students, researchers, and scholars of media and cultural studies, film and media culture, popular culture, comics studies, game studies, literary studies, and beyond.
Contents
Introduction Paul Booth Part I: Skipping Stones over the Waters of the Multiverse 1. The Irresistible Rise of the Multiverse in the fin-de-Millennium Media Zeitgeist Tim Butler Garrett 2. 'The Unsupportable Pride of Mankind': Seventeenth-Century Utopias, Humility, and the Multiverse Aglaia Maretta Venters 3. Depictions of the Multiverse as a Labyrinth, a Cultural Icon Between Science, Humanities, and Fiction Angélica Cabrera Torrecilla 4. A Creative Deconstruction of the Cultural Strands in the Multiple Timelines of The Flash (2023): Introduction to the Online Resource "Multiversal Spaghetti" Chris Gerrard 5. The Multiverse as a Stylistic Structure Sem Devillart 6. Capitalism and the Multiverse: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Socio-Economic Influence on Cosmological Concepts Marija Adela Gjorgjioska and Ana Tomičić 7. The Non-Binary Multiverse Poem, Or Friday August 25th, 2023 Dusty Michael Perez 8. What Does It Mean To Be Eternally Alone in the Multiverse? Adalberto Fernandes 9. Lux in Tenebris Maria Faust 10. Tales of Two Multiverses: From Fan Service/Productivity to Shared Inflationary Fantasies Matt Hills Part II: Multiversal Constructs across Media 11. It's a Trip. It's Got a Funky Beat: Exploring the Sonic Multiverse through Hip Hop Sampling Ian Sinnett 12. The Shared Multiversal Power of K-pop Lore Videos and Videographic Criticism Louisa Ellen Stein 13. The Multiverse of Madness Nev Fountain 14. Young Forever(?): Looping Time and Fractured Futures in BTS's Bangtan Universe Lauren R. O'Connor 15. "The Infinite Knowledge and Power of the Multiverse": Intersectionality as the Multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once Shayna Maskell 16. Marvel's Multiverse of Madness: The Implications of Alternative Realities, Variants, and Doppelgängers within the Marvel Cinematic Universe Rob McLaughlin 17. Where's Wanda? Collage and Collapse Teresa Forde 18. Expanding the Spider-Verse: Infinite Possibility and Fan Plausibility Lore Whittemore 19. Turtleverse!: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Multiverse in Media as a Tool to Explore Diverse Genres Ricardo Victoria-Uribe and Nazario Robles-Bastida Part III: Multiversal Constructs Across Literature and Games 20. The Comic Book Multiverse: Creative Playground / Corporate Plaything Blair Davis 21. Multiversality in Children's Picture Books: Portals to Many Worlds Ondine Park 22. The Atlas, the Resurrections, the Rising, and the Time War: Multiverse(ions) of Love from Four Fictional Universes Rebecca Gibson 23. Forget-Me-Not Rebecca Johns 24. Finding Yourself: Multiversal Identity Crisis in Ted Chiang's Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom Amy Coles 25. On Wormholes, Link Cables, and the Limitations of Transmedia: Fan Interpretations of Trans-Spatial Discourses in Pokémon Video Games Ross Garner 26. Playing Across Planes with the D&D Multiverse Maria K. Alberto 27. Cards Against Monstrosity: The Arkham Horror Multiverse David Scott Diffrient Part IV: Multiversal Constructs Across The Self and Others 28. Teaching the American Multiverse: Power, Agency, and Identity in an Age of Consumer Choice Dustin Abnet 29. Reaffirming Japanese Identity through the Multiverse: A Response to Post-3.11 Uncertainties from Your Name Erica Ka-yan Poon 30. How to Travel the Multiverse: A Text World Theory Guide Matthew Voice 31. The Multiverse of Fanfiction Julia Neugarten 32. "Love Live the Empire!": Star Trek's Mirror Universe as a Form of Fan Fiction Lincoln Geraghty
