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Resource type: Book Chapter Language: en: English DOI: 10.1057/9781137312778.0015 BibTeX citation key: Ferreira2012 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details |
Categories: General Keywords: "El Eternauta", Argentina, Latin America, Oesterheld. Hector, Science Fiction, Stereotypes Creators: Brown, Ferreira, Ginway Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (New York [etc.]) Collection: Latin American Science Fiction. Theory and Practice |
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Abstract |
When speaking of Héctor Germán Oesterheld and his Eternautas series of comics, we are speaking of multiple and interlocking levels of icons. Oesterheld first began the historieta [comic] about the time-traveling Juan Salvo, known as the “Eternauta,” in the late 1950s, later revisiting it in the 1960s and 1970s. In the three Eternauta narratives in question, a group of intrepid technologically savvy individuals struggle against a deadly phosphorescent snowfall and a series of alien species only to have the news of their local victory obliterated by nuclear devastation and alien treachery. Attempts to avoid this near-future reality for Buenos Aires and/or the reconstruction of the city occupy the later installments of the series. This chapter will examine the evolution of Oesterheld’s use of science fiction (SF) icons within the Eternauta narratives over three decades in order to discuss the cultural assumptions underlying the SF genre, Argentine attitudes toward technology, SF and political strife, and national and global power dynamics.
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