An Analysis of Dissident Discourse in Superhero Films After the Events of September 11 Based on Alan Seinfeld’s Theory of Faultlines

Chavoshvar, Mehdi

doi:10.22034/rpa.2025.2061013.1153

An Analysis of Dissident Discourse in Superhero Films After the Events of September 11 Based on Alan Seinfeld’s Theory of Faultlines

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Mehdi Chavoshvar ^¶

PhD Student in Art Research, Department of Art, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Art, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad.

10.22034/rpa.2025.2061013.1153

Abstract

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States faced a multilayered crisis in the realms of security, identity, and popular culture—a crisis that was particularly reflected in mainstream cinema and the superhero genre. During this period, comic book adaptations rapidly flourished and became one of the most prominent tools for representing the post-crisis condition. This article, drawing on Alan Sinfield’s theoretical framework and the concepts of “faultlines” and “dissident narratives,” aims to demonstrate how superhero films, while reproducing dominant national and security discourses, contain ideological ruptures that enable resistant readings within seemingly coherent narratives. An analysis of ritual functions such as nostalgia, escapism, and wish fulfillment, along with the myth of the self-authorized hero, reveals tensions that arise from internal contradictions within the established order. The method of the present research is descriptive-analytical, and this study does not include a specific hypothesis. It appears that post-September 11 superhero films, despite their entertaining and seemingly consensual surface, are in fact complex ideological arenas where reproduction and resistance operate simultaneously and in parallel.

Keywords

Alan Sinfield

Faultlines

Dissident Narratives

Adaptation

Superhero Cinema

September 11

Subjects