Fieldworking My Way To Captain America
I will present my research on my fandom while taking you through the steps of literacy that I used to learn and understand my fandom. When I began this Fall I had believed that literacy was merely the ability to read and write. My assumptions were wrong! Using the guidelines that were provided to me, I was able to get an in depth knowledge of my fandom. One that I feel would never have been achieved without this new known knowledge. I chose Steve Rogers as my fandom, mainly because parts of him remind me of my grandfather, who I loved dearly. He was a small man, but he was mighty. He took in my mom and her siblings when they were orphaned and played a very huge role in my life, something he did not have to do. He did so because he felt it was the right thing to do. He was always “saving the day”.My fandom, Steve Rogers character was introduced in 1941 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby of Timely Comics,(Marvel Comics predecessor), in Captain America Comics #1. Coincidentally, Steve started as a small-framed weakling that only wanted to join the U.S. Army and fight in the war effort during World War II. He failed multiple times in attempts to pass the physical entrance examination into the service. During one of his examinations a doctor, which was both a doctor and a scientist, interviewed Steve and discovered that he had a pure heart, die-hard determination, high morals, and believed in the American ideals of liberty and justice. After passing the interview and examination, the doctor performed a procedure on Steve which gave him a larger muscular physique, and incredible strength and stamina to the peak of human perfection. With his new and improved physical status, his old sense of values and a new, patriotic, American flag-themed, red, white, and blue uniform, he set out to fight for justice under the title “Captain America”, to aid in the United States efforts to win World War II. After starting in 1941, why would people still want to follow such an old character? My personal assumption is that people follow Captain America due to what his character represents, the basic core and fiber of American values. It may also be that Steve Rogers represents all of the little people in this world who have ever had to deal with a bully and then came out on top. We all love the underdog and love it more whenever they win. Maybe Captain America reminds us all of what and why people of his era were referred to as “the greatest generation.” As a child I was first introduced to Captain America by reading several of his comic books. His brightly colored blue uniform with red and white vertical stripes and a bold white star emblazoned on his chest appealed to me. Although, Captain America was a super-soldier he was not like the rather typical comic book hero. He couldn't fly or shoot laser beams from his eyes, but he fought with intellect and grit. He battled evil-doers with a limited inventory comprised of his motorcycle, an indestructible shield, a .45 pistol, his fists and a lot of intestinal fortitude. Having limited knowledge of my fandom, my overall goal and intention was to understand more about the beloved American Super Hero and learn how and what makes up a good research portfolio. Knowing a person's research portfolio is the backbone of any ethnographic study, I followed the four key activities mentioned in our book, Fieldworking. They are: collecting, selecting, reflecting, and projecting. I gathered and acquired materials that shape my fieldwork, I carefully selected the best material from my portfolio, analyzed and synthesized my most important data, and then saw the progress and formed my goals. You may ask, what is literacy? Earlier this year I would have told you it was the ability to read and write . It seemed easy enough to understand then, but this was before I realized that literacy has more to it than that. It is layered like an onion and more is revealed about it the closer you get to the core. Literacy can be reading and writing but not limited or restricted to just that. Understanding, interpretation, and comprehension are all necessary for literacy. Reading complex algorithms to recognizing a red octagonal sign at an intersection of a street is literacy. Sign language and Morse code are examples of literacy. One thing literacy is not and that is in a singular state. There has to be more than one person for it to be literacy. The Education Development Center, Inc. states, “The power of literacy lies not only in ability to read and write, but rather in an individual's capacity to put those skills to work in shaping the course of his or her own life. With the insight that genuine literacy involves “reading the word and the world.” Broken down, this means to me that comprehension is equally as important as the ability to read and write. What good are instructions if the audience has not even a clue? A renowned educator by the name of Paulo Freire helped open the door to a broader understanding of the term, one that moves from a strict decoding and reproducing of language into issues of economics, health, and sustainable development. Friere's view of literacy is at once practical and all-encompassing. He also was arrested in 1964 in Brazil and exiled for teaching peasants to read. He was broadening minds and breaking down boundaries that once reserved reading to the upper class and the privileged. There is a connection to poverty and illiteracy. This was and is not a problem just in underdeveloped countries, it has and still happens today in America. Especially during the 1960's the root cause of poverty had been singled out and it was illiteracy. The more literate a person is the better his or her quality of life will be, better job, better wages, etc. Literacy affects all aspects of life in all shapes and sizes. If I were illiterate we would not be having this conversation right now. From a lawyer to a fry cook, you have to be literate. How does a person know a literacy event whenever they see one? That question may be harder to answer than I first thought due to the fact that people engage in literacy events and probably do not even realize they are doing it. A literacy event is a social engagement where parties exchange information, emotions, etc. with one another. A book club meeting or even Sunday school bible study are some examples of a literacy event. People exchanging knowledge and information to one another is a literacy event. City council meetings or school board meetings are some other examples of literacy events. There are different types of literacy so there are many different types of events to go accompany them. If you talk to someone about a movie the both of you had just seen, that would be called film literacy. Talking around the water cooler at work would be an example of workplace literacy. Literacy changes in the different domains of your life whether it be at home, at work, the kid's soccer game, entertaining guests, or a night out on the town with your loved one. Literacy changes amongst social and economic classes, public status, and roles. If I were to seek a literacy event, it would not be hard to find. With the technology that we have today a person can find a discussion board on just about any topic you could imagine. With Tumblr, a person can discuss and learn about millions of topics in a blog format. Twitter has an endless amount of information from an almost endless amount of sources. For a more formal and face-to-face event, I might read my newspaper and talk about what I had read on the sports page with my son, or politics with my wife, or stories about wildlife to my daughter. A great way to have a stimulating event would be to talk about politics with someone. It has been my experience that most if not all people have an opinion on politics. No matter their education level, economic or social status, young or old, people have an opinion. Politics and literacy do have ties and not all of them are good ones. At one time, only the wealthy and priviledge had the opportunity to learn to read and write, this usually meant scribes, scholars, and politicians were the ones afforded that opportunity. The upper echelon did not want the poor to be educated because without the poor you can't have the rich. Who would serve whom? Great leaders, generals, commanders, presidents, and world leaders in the past and present very well educated and literate individuals. There is much debate on literature and what makes it and from where does it come. For something that is extremely difficult to define it has its' own scientists and professors that have dedicated their lives to it. Ethnography is by definition a study of an aspect of human culture with research and observations that support the researchers overall claims and conclusions about that culture. In order to do Ethnographic studies on a culture or subculture, the fieldworker as they are known, must ask the broader questions as opposed to the likes of a reporter's questioning of the who, what, when, where, and why of an event. The fieldworker asks questions from both perspectives of an event, the insider and outsider. After listening, observing, recording, interpreting, and analyzing data the fieldworker must combine an outsider's point of view with that of an insider's perspective. Anthropologists use the term “emic” to mean the insider's perspective and “etic” to refer to that of the outsider. There is a major difference in journalism and ethnography besides the types of questioning I mentioned previously and that is a journalist is a reporter of news and a field worker is a scientist trying to learn not just about a situation or event but what was the cause and the effect. How were people affected by the event and why? All of this collection of data and then try to make sense of it all. Not for someone's amusement for a brief moment but to educate others who will learn from the experience. There have been many a great mind try to define literacy and just as many probably that try to agree on a definition of literacy. Here is a quote from Dauzat and Dauzat, who express their concerns on adult basic education: “In spite of all of the furor and the fervor for attaining literacy...few have undertaken to say what they or anyone else means by literacy. Those few professional organizations, bureaus, and individuals who have attempted the task of explaining 'what is literacy?' generate definitions that conflict, contradict but rarely complement each other...These 'champions of the cause of literacy' crusade for a national effort to make literacy a reality without establishing what that really is.” Just as in politics there are opponents with totally different view points. Some intellectuals want a more “structured” definition of the term for educational purpose and others such as Paulo Freire think of it to be a much broader term. Friere's view of literacy is at once practical and all-encompassing. Whether it is the words of a language , the symbols in a mathematical system, or images posted to the internet-literacy can transform lives. Surely the most educated on the subject and the mere novice such as myself can agree on at least part of Paulo Friere's statement and that is, that literacy can transform lives.
My research was on certain and all aspects of a fandom with most research being done on the internet with social media sites. My main objective was to gain an understanding of the fandom culture, the people that make up the culture, and what is the “draw” or influence into this culture. With all of that said I followed a strict code of ethics for the protection for all participants in my study based upon “The Belmont Report” by Dan Harms, United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. I conducted this research on my own but I received guidance from various individuals and my university instructor. The strict code I went by was:
* Maintain integrity as an interviewer and also maintain the integrity for all participants by the
responsible use of evidence in developing arguments and fairness in hearing and reading the
arguments of all involved.
* Never exploit or discriminate against others on grounds such as race, ethnicity, national origin,
religious creed, age, gender, sexual preference, or disability.
* Zero tolerance on sexual harassment.
* Use foul language that is prejudicial or gratuitously derogative.
* Never misuse confidential information.
* Never plagiarize the work of others. * Respect our own cultures and the cultures we study.
* Make decisions whether a line of inquiry is ultimately useful to society.
* Acknowledge appropriately any intellectual indebtedness.
* Respect participants privacy and their emotional and intellectual dignity.
* Keep confidentiality at participants discretion.
With the majority of my research done on Tumblr and Twitter and other social media, information is passed along 24 hours a day. I checked these sites multiple times through the days and weeks. I researched these sites until the end of this. Observation was done over several sites seeing displays of fan art, fan commentary, and various blogs. I started as an “outsider” looking in with hopes of having a change for “insider” interaction. My primary source of information came from studying various types of activities and websites online. I followed blogs on Tumblr, scanned for various fan art, fan comments, up coming events, and was able to get a perspective on life of a typical fan. Another social media that I used as a valuable tool is Twitter. There are several Twitter accounts that I followed and learned fan jargon,fan opinions, fan behavior, and it proved to be a fertile venue for asking questions that people may be reluctant to answer in a typical interview setting. There were also numerous websites as well to provide more information on my subject. Those websites steered me in the right direction in finding actual comic books and memorabilia. Although I was unable to get any surveys back, the information that I learned from the internet and comic books made many interesting dinner time discussions with my family. Using the steps collecting, selecting, reflecting, and projecting, I was able to open up many parts about Captain America and his faithful followers that I never knew. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the different movies he starred in. Giving a brief summary of each movie, you can see how he changed through the years.
Captain America(1944) is loosely based on the character by Timely Comics(today known as Marvel Comics). It is from Republic, a black and white serial film. The movie has 15 chapters and 243 minutes worth of film. I was fortunate to have been able to watch it on YouTube and found that there are many differences between this Captain America and the traditional Captain America that most people are familiar with. For one, despite the fact that this serial film was made in 1944, Captain America did not fight Nazi's, His comic books created in 1940 were made so America could have an American Icon in their comics that would give the soldiers and their families hope in World War II. This movie was more like a detective/vigilante show. His secret identity is District Attorney Grant Gardner rather than U.S. Army private
Steve Rogers. The “Super Soldier Serum” was not used like depicted in all his other films. A standard gun was in place of his famous shield. Bucky Barnes his his best friend and sidekick never is discussed nor appears. In my opinion the Captain America(1944) was more like a District Attorney turned vigilante instead of the super soldier we all know and love.
Captain America(TV movie 1979) starring Red Brown as Steve Rogers is also loosely based on Marvel Comics character Captain America, but has more of Captain America features we know today. As opposed to the Captain America(1944) this Captain America is a super soldier not just a glorified vigilante. This movie takes place in the 1970's, Steve Rogers is a former Marine and is now making a living as an artist. It was Steve's father that was a government agent in the 1940's, and had such a super patriotic attitude that it earned him the nickname Captain America. Upon hearing the story of his father being murdered, he decides to sketch out a drawing of a super hero based on his father. Later on in an accident in which he received potentially fatal injuries, he was found and injected with a super steroid. The steroid was know as F.L.A.G. and was an experimental body enhancement chemical(super steroid). It stood for Full Latent Ability Gain. The serum not only saved his life but enhanced his body with heightened strength and reflexes. He is then talked into helping the government combat America's foes. Steve decides to make a uniform from his earlier super hero drawings of his father and takes on his fathers old nickname Captain America. Using his tricked out motorcycle and a shield made from “jet-age” plastics he goes on to fight America's fight. This movie also had a sequel the same year named Captain America II: Death Too Soon. Captain America(1990) is based on Marvel Comics character Captain America. The lead actor playing Steve Rodgers in this film is Matt Salinger. This movie reflects on how Red Skull comes to be. It shows in 1936 in Italy, Fascists kidnap a boy and kill his family. They use the young boy for an experimental project to make a Fascist super soldier who later becomes known as “Red Skull”. The Italian scientists that developed the experimental serum did not agree with what the Fascist were doing to the boy. Although it was too late for the boy, the women scientists who was trying to stop what the Fascists were doing fled for her life with the only know recipe in her memory to the United States under heavy gun fire. Upon her arrival in the United States she meet Steve Rogers who had been excluded from the military draft due to Polo. He volunteers to take the super serum which successfully makes him into a super soldier so that America has a chance in the fight to beat Red Skull. During the epic fight Captain America and Red Skull skirmish on a rocket that is fired at the White House. Both of the super soldiers,also known as “brothers”, fight on the rocket until Red Skull cuts off his own hand to free himself from the explosion. Captain America meanwhile is able to divert the rocket from the White House and directs it to somewhere in Alaska and crashes into the ice. There he stays for 50 years in a frozen state before being found.
Captain America The First Avenger(2011)
Captain America The First Avenger(2011) is the most popular interpretation of Captain America starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. This film is based predominately in World War II. It tells the story of a young Steve Rogers, a sickly feeble young man from Brooklyn with giant heart and great sense of patriotism. Upon several rejections from entry into the military his perseverance and stubbornness lead him to a chance meeting with a doctor who could give him a chance to become all he ever wanted....a soldier. The doctor gave Steve an evaluation of morals and character and questioned his willingness to try an experimental serum and of course Steve passed with flying colors. America needed a super soldier to aid in the war effort against the Nazi's. After completion of the top secret procedure, Steve Rogers was transformed into that very super soldier. With his improved physique, strength, agility, and heightened senses he takes on the Nazi's and his nemesis the Red Skull. Red Skull is Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry and the leader of an organization called Hydra that intends to use an artifact called the “Tesseract” as an energy source for World domination. Captain America with his best friend and fellow soldier Bucky Barnes, and the “Howling Commandos” have constant battles with the Nazi's and Hydra.
Captain America The Winter Soldier is a sequel to Captain America The First Avenger once again starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. This movie picks up were the previous movie The First Avenger left off. It takes place in present day Washington D.C. two years after the battle of New York. Steve Rogers works in Washington D.C. for the top espionage agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D under the direction of director Nick Fury. While working he is also having to adjust to contemporary society and modern times and technologies. He basically has 70 years of time to catch up to, and also having to deal with the lose of everyone he once knew and loved. He is teamed up with agent NaTasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow, to fight evil doers. On one of their assignments they come across a mysterious and deadly assassin by the name of “The Winter Soldier”. Captain America enlists the help from a friend and former U.S. Air Force pararescueman Sam Wilson a.k.a the Falcon. Captain America armed with his shield and super soldier abilities, and Black Widow a deadly assassin, and the Falcon fitted with his experimental weapon which is a winged flight suit set out to fight this mysterious villain The Winter Soldier. During one of their encounters Captain America realizes that The Winter Soldier is his long lost best friend Bucky Barnes. Bucky thought to have been dead had somehow been captured and experimented on and brain washed into becoming a deadly Russian assassin. During their last battle which was on a hoover aircraft Captain America had the opportunity to kill The Winter Soldier, but showed mercy and hoped that Bucky would recognize his long lost best friend. The Winter Soldier continues the fight and they both crash into the Potomac River. The last scene shows the Winter Soldier dragging Captain America to shore before disappearing into the forest.
I learned that Captain America was intentionally a patriotic character created to encourage and inspire readers to be patriotic themselves and pro-American and anti-axis powers. After all, it was during World War II. He was the most popular character during the 1940's wartime period. Popularity dropped after the war but came back with a vengeance during what was deemed the Silver Age of Comics. His character was that of an M. I. A. soldier that was recovered from an iceberg and awakened from from suspended animation by a team of superheroes called The Avengers #4(March 1964). Since then, Captain America has often led the team and starred in his own series. As of 2007, it has been estimated that 210 million copies of “Captain America” comic books had been sold in 75 countries! The character Captain America was the first marvel comic character to have been adopted into another medium, that being a film. A serial movie in 1944 started it all and lead the way for several other films and television series. By 2011, Captain America was ranked sixth on IGN's top 100 comic book heroes. My research proved that the appeal of Captain America was not the same for each fan. There is not a specific mold that people in this fandom can be placed into. There are fans of all different ages and backgrounds. Throughout my research I have discovered that very small children, their parents, and even the actor Peter Fonda was influenced by Captain America. Peter Fonda so much that for his famous movie, Easy Rider, he had a chopper motorcycle specially designed and painted with an American flag motif paint job and called the bike “Captain America.” From Sikh people, college students, to movie actors, the only common thread between them all may only be they shared the fandom of Captain America. No matter if a person is an “old-school” fan or a younger fan they tend to share their input on different social media sites. They post tweets to twitter and post on blog sites such as Tumblr. They post their views, opinions, favorite images, screen shots from movies, posters, fan art, pictures of themselves and friends doing cos-play, and favorite comic books. This class has taught me something that I would have never thought I'd learn. Social media sites prove to be a fertile field for all forms of literacy. Written, verbal, visual. There are forms of literacy all over the place and all we have to do is be aware of it. The old saying, “can't see the forest for the trees” applies to literacy. This class and all that I have been shoved into learning about, has given me a great literary lesson not to mention I learned a great deal on an interesting fandom.
Annotated Bibliography
Klemperer, Victor. “I will bear witness, 1933-1941 & 1942-1945 a diary of the Nazi years”.
Days in the Life. Modern Library, 1999
Victor Klemperer tells of his own life experiences before and during the Nazi era. He started as a professor of literature(French), employed at the Technical University of Dresden at the time the Nazi's came to power in 1933. He had works already published but was forced to put his other projects on the back burner due to the fact that he was a Jew. He was married to an “Aryan” which granted him some leniency as compared to other Jewish people. He focused on writing his own personal journal which documented his personal experiences, trials, and tribulations he endured during the Nazi occupation. His work ties into my research in two ways, the pure literacy aspect and that the Nazi's were the main enemy of my fandom choice Captain America.
Williams, Bronwyn T. “Shimmering Literacies: Popular Culture & Read and Writing Online”
GMBH, Peter Lang. 22 June. 2009
In this article, Williams explains the role of pop culture online and the effects that it has on modern literacy practices of young people. His research and subject matter had a direct connection to the research that I conducted on my fandom and literacy. Literacy can be spread more easily and more rapidly now with help from the internet and social media sites. A person can relay their views or their retorts to a great mass of people in a matter of seconds thanks to modern media.
Honeyford, Michelle A. “Aqui and Alla”: Symbolic Convergence in the Multimodal Literacy Practices of Adolescent Immigrant Students .
Journal of Literacy Research. June. 2014
Using the representational process, this study uses visual and verbal discourse analysis to examine a multi modal photo essay created by 7th & 8th immigrant students in English as a new language class. Collectively titled “I am from 'Aqui' and 'Alla'” by the students, the photo essay displayed as an exhibit. The practice of bringing together the multiple sites of non-indigenous identities; offering others alternate sites from which to understand them. This article shows various ways to use literacy to communicate with others even if they speak a foreign dialect.
Works Cited
Sunstein, Bonnie Stone, and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Fieldworking”.Reading and Writing Research 4th edition.Bedford/St. Martin's. Boston/New York 2012. Print.
Szved, John F. “The Ethnography of Literacy”. Ethnographic Inquiries In Writing.
1st Edition. Ed. Tabetha Adkins. Texas. 2010. Print.
Friere, Paulo.(n.d.).What is Literacy?. Retrieved from http://www.EDC.org.
Sunstein, Bonnie Stone, and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Fieldworking. 4th ed. Boston/New York.
2012. Print.
Patton, Michael Quinn. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002. Print.
“Ethics.” Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2010
MLA Statement of Professional Ethics, Web. 2012. http://www.mla.org/repviewprofethics
Harms, Dan. “The Belmont Report.” United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. April 18, 1979.
en.m.wikipedia.org for information regarding Captain America
Captain America Winter Soldier the Movie
http://youtube.com
Captain America The First Avenger
