The Media Studies Book

Chapter 2

 

Language

Karen Manzi and Allan Rowe

 

In his book about the 1950s campaign against the American horror comic, Martin Barker¹ analyses a comic story called The Orphan which at the time was the target of moral crusaders for its alleged depravity. Barker suggests that The Orphan possesses aesthetic qualities that convey a complex and insightful exploration of childhood overlooked by the moralists in their rush to condemn.

How can conflicts in interpretation like this one be explained? Is it possible for texts to be read in many different ways? Or is it something in the assumptions of the readers that leads to different readings? Could there be even more interpretations? What might children at the time – those for whom the comic was intended ...