The Popular Tale : A Study on Retention and Deconstruction of Collective Memory in Duffer Brothers' Stranger Things and Bisha Ali's Miss Marvel

Athira  Manoharan

doi:10.35684/JLCI.2023.10105

Authors

Athira Manoharan Research Scholar, Pondicherry Central University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35684/JLCI.2023.10105

Keywords:

Memory Studies, Collective Memory, Deconstruction, Popular Culture, Web-series

Abstract

In On Media Memory; Collective Memory in New Media Age, cultural memory is described as “a version of past, defined and negotiated through changing socio-political power circumstances and agendas" (qtd. in Bosh TE 3). The popular entertainment of every age is obliged to incorporate elements of cultural memory in it to remain popular. The paper seeks to interrogate the role played by the integration of cultural memory in the popular American science fiction web series, Stranger Things, and the latest production of Marvel Cinematic Universe, Miss Marvel. The Stranger Things series, written and directed by the Duffer brothers is set in the mid-1980s. The age is recreated through certain elements that constitute cultural memory. They are placed within the context of the Ukraine crisis which urgently necessitates anti-Russian narratives in American popular entertainment. Miss Marvel appeared as a fresh wind in MCU, questioning the collective mistrust towards the Pakistani Muslim community and addressing the scars of partition as well as migration in third-generation Pakistani-Americans. The two web series featured on Netflix and Disney Hotstar are compared and contrasted to elucidate how popular entertainment can act as a soft power for the retention and deconstruction of cultural memory.

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Author Biography

Athira Manoharan, Research Scholar, Pondicherry Central University

Athira Manoharan would describe herself as an aspiring writer-researcher with an inclination to visual arts, popular culture, and urban studies. She has completed her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in English Language and Literature from Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara. The quest for research prompted her to pursue an MPhil from Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady. She is currently a research scholar at the Pondicherry Central University.