Join us for the second Weird TV lecture in 2025!
Jakub Szaniawski (University of Warsaw/independent researcher)
Immortality in Televised Media – The Negative Sides of Being a (Super?)human
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
4:45 pm
*3 OZN*
Where?
Dobra 55, room: TBA
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)
What?
Immortality as a concept has existed since ancient times, but unlike then, the term nowadays is rarely connected to chasing eternal youth or extending one’s life indefinitely. The concept of immortality in contemporary popular culture, propagated often through TV shows for children and adolescents alike, is usually connected with superheroes and the supernatural in general. Portrayed mostly as invincibility or ability to sustain damage that would otherwise kill a regular human, the focus is put on the physical sides of this concept, rarely on the mental side of being immortal. Death, after all, awaits everyone in the end, it is ingrained into human culture. As a species, we are drawn as much to creating, as we are to destroying, including ourselves. What, then, is to be said about those denied this integral part of human life? How do their concept of the self change, how is it affected when confronted with that fundamental change in their nature? How are those, who are invulnerable, damaged by being forced to live forever? In my presentation, I will analyze how a TV show Heroes, as well as anime Ajin: Demi-Human have tackled the mental aspects of immortality, how they portrayed the psychological struggle of trying to come to terms with their new situation and how they fought for their humanity despite the rift that ever so further distanced them from the rest of society due to their condition.
Trigger warnings: Death (a lot), blood (a lot), mentions of torture and graphic depictions of injuries
Who?
Jakub Szaniawski is a 3rd year BA program student at the ASC, currently in the process of writing his BA on the topic of portrayals of systematic abuse in American media. His academic interests revolve around the media, mostly American TV shows, video games as well as the genre of analogue horror.
