Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Luria, Rachel

Abstract

Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen redefined the superhero genre, elevating comics from entertainment to literature. Though published over twenty-five years ago, Watchmen tells a story of human corruption that still resonates today. While he has inspired many modern graphic novelists, he owes a literary debt to his forefathers; in this case, Romanticist poet William Blake. Blake’s themes of duality and the symmetrical nature of innocence and experience are revisited and reinterpreted in Moore’s work. By interpreting Watchmen through the lens of Blake’s poems and engravings, both author’s vision of humanity comes into focus. Blake sees human nature as a duality, a living contradiction that could use its two sides to become whole. Moore complicates this, suggesting that humanity is corrupt and if it is double-sided, it is more akin to a two-way mirror, where there is always a side we cannot see because we are blinded by our own flaws.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

46 p.

Identifier

FA00003584

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