Introduction
Chapter One The Secret Origins of Adolescence
Chapter Two Robin, Nightwing, Batman: The Shifting Sexuality of
Dick Grayson
Chapter Three Girls Wonder: Young Female Robins in the Modern Age
of Comics
Chapter Four Mixed Signals: Adolescence, Race, and Robin
Chapter Five The Sidekick on Screen: Images of Robin in Television
and Film
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
LAUREN R. O'CONNOR holds a doctorate in American Culture Studies
from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio and a
master of arts in Counseling and Human Services. She is based in
Batavia, Illinois. She is a licensed adolescent counselor and
studies the history of the American teenager and has published in
the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, the Journal of Popular
Culture, and contributed a chapter to Uncanny Bodies: Superhero
Comics and Disability.
“Lauren R. O’Connor explains Robin—as a teen, as a superhero, as a
symbol—as a necessary way to understand adolescence in America
along the axes of age, class, gender, and race. O'Connor does us
all a favor and gives us a way to know how this enduring figure of
adolescence fits into the superhero genre, into comics publishing,
and into American culture.”
*author of Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre*
"In Robin and the Making of American Adolescence, Lauren
R. O'Connor deftly demonstrates how various iterations
of Robin express contemporary anxieties about
adolescence, sexuality, gender, and race. This insightful,
engaging study discusses the various ways Batman's
sidekick is often kicked aside; it urges us to
see how Robin's subordinate position mirrors young
people's peripheral status. Robin and the Making of American
Adolescence is a valuable contribution to histories
of comics and adolescence."
*author of Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and
Citizenship in Progressive Era Comics*
"In this engaging account located at the intersection of youth
studies and comics studies, O’Connor uses Robin as a lens
to look at shifting cultural constructions of adolescence in
the USA over time. In doing so she emphasizes the significance
of the longevity of the character and the diversity of the
individuals who have taken on the role."
*co-editor of Superheroes and Identities*
"Holy adolescence, Batman! Robin and the Making of American
Adolescence offers the first character history and analysis of
the most famous superhero sidekick, Robin. Debuting just a few
months after Batman himself, Robin has been an integral part of the
Dark Knight’s history—and debuting just a few months prior to the
word 'teenager' first appearing in print, Robin has from the outset
both reflected and reinforced particular images of American
adolescence. Closely reading several characters who have 'played'
Robin over the past eighty years, Robin and the Making of
American Adolescence reveals the Boy (and sometimes Girl!)
Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has
addressed anxieties about adolescents in relation to sexuality,
gender, and race. This book partners up comics studies and
adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, following Robin as he
swings alongside the ever-changing American teenager and finally
shining the Bat-signal on the latter half of 'Batman and—.'"
*Forces of Geek*
“Lauren R. O’Connor explains Robin—as a teen, as a superhero, as a
symbol—as a necessary way to understand adolescence in America
along the axes of age, class, gender, and race. O'Connor does us
all a favor and gives us a way to know how this enduring figure of
adolescence fits into the superhero genre, into comics publishing,
and into American culture.”
*author of Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre*
"In Robin and the Making of American Adolescence, Lauren
R. O'Connor deftly demonstrates how various iterations
of Robin express contemporary anxieties about
adolescence, sexuality, gender, and race. This insightful,
engaging study discusses the various ways Batman's
sidekick is often kicked aside; it urges us to
see how Robin's subordinate position mirrors young
people's peripheral status. Robin and the Making of American
Adolescence is a valuable contribution to histories
of comics and adolescence."
*author of Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and
Citizenship in Progressive Era Com*
"In this engaging account located at the intersection of youth
studies and comics studies, O’Connor uses Robin as a lens
to look at shifting cultural constructions of adolescence in
the USA over time. In doing so she emphasizes the significance
of the longevity of the character and the diversity of the
individuals who have taken on the role."
*co-editor of Superheroes and Identities*
"Holy adolescence, Batman! Robin and the Making of American
Adolescence offers the first character history and analysis of
the most famous superhero sidekick, Robin. Debuting just a few
months after Batman himself, Robin has been an integral part of the
Dark Knight’s history—and debuting just a few months prior to the
word 'teenager' first appearing in print, Robin has from the outset
both reflected and reinforced particular images of American
adolescence. Closely reading several characters who have 'played'
Robin over the past eighty years, Robin and the Making of
American Adolescence reveals the Boy (and sometimes Girl!)
Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has
addressed anxieties about adolescents in relation to sexuality,
gender, and race. This book partners up comics studies and
adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, following Robin as he
swings alongside the ever-changing American teenager and finally
shining the Bat-signal on the latter half of 'Batman and—.'"
*Forces of Geek*
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