Deconstructing the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the security/popular architecture of American identity and threat perception

The film has become increasingly popular and more accessible in the age of globalization. Superhero genre especially from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can be considered as the manifestation of global politics as it has shaped and represented how we think and visualize global politics and their security architectures. Moreover, in the field of international relations (IR), though some theories especially mainstream have been applied to the film studies, the MCU especially the latter series have never been untouched. This paper mainly uses theory of post-structuralism and the concept of architecture as event space introduced by Michael Shapiro in order to illustrate how films can portray the American identity, with the emphasis of identity of victim and savior, and how threats are perceived in the US foreign policy discourse, from terrorism, disaster, pandemic, national security, and human security. This paper selects four films i.e., The Avengers, Avengers : Age of Ultron, Avengers : Infinity War, and Avengers Endgame as case studies. In addition, the paper also examine how the concept of architecture of security such as buildings and locations throughout the series have played significant roles in emphasizing hidden meanings and agendas in global politics. Finally, the paper also discover the challenge on existing hegemonic discourses, such as the discourse of men as ‘protector’ and the discourse of Africa as ‘backward and uncivilized’.

全球化时代背景下，影视艺术愈发受到欢迎，传播也更为便捷可及。尤以漫威电影宇宙（Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU）为代表的超级英雄题材作品，可被视为全球政治的具象化表达——它塑造并诠释了我们认知与具象化全球政治及其安全架构的方式。此外，在国际关系（International Relations, IR）领域，尽管已有部分理论（尤以主流理论为代表）被应用于影视研究，但漫威电影宇宙的后续系列作品始终未得到足够的学术关注。本文主要采用后结构主义（post-structuralism）理论，以及迈克尔·夏皮罗（Michael Shapiro）提出的“作为事件空间的安全架构”概念，旨在阐释影视作品如何塑造美国身份认同，重点聚焦于受害者与拯救者双重身份，并剖析美国外交政策话语中对各类威胁的认知逻辑，涵盖恐怖主义、灾难、疫情、国家安全与人类安全等维度。本文选取四部影片作为案例研究对象，分别为《复仇者联盟》《复仇者联盟2：奥创纪元》《复仇者联盟3：无限战争》以及《复仇者联盟4：终局之战》。此外，本文还将探讨系列作品中的建筑与场景等安全架构元素，如何在凸显全球政治中的隐性意涵与议程方面发挥关键作用。最后，本文还将剖析既有霸权话语所面临的挑战，例如将男性塑造为“保护者”的话语，以及将非洲描绘为“落后且未开化”的话语。