Elmer: A satire on the assimilationist ideal

• Main Author: Yu, Christianne Smile P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Fiction
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2588
• Institution: De La Salle University

Elmer is a science fiction graphic novel that recounts the story of chickens as they face the Great Awakening and the massive cullings after. It tells of their struggles as they try to survive the new world they now share with man, This thesis take on Elmer in a satirical reading using Paul Simpson's SMUT model as its main framework. Supported by Alvin Kernan's theory on satire, Neel Ahuja's ideas on the animal mask, Iri Marion Young's theory on the politics of difference, Pascal Lefevre and Charles Hatfield's ideas on space and tension, this thesis reads Elmer as a satire on the assimilationist ideal. It accomplishes this by using three themes namely: 1) The Animal Mask, 2) The Assimilationist Ideal, and 3) The Politics of Difference. In The Animal Mask, this thesis uses Simpson's model to ascertain the prime of the satire. Using Ahuja's theory, the setting is established and the roles of the chickens identified. Next, through The Assimilationist Ideal, the dialectic is discussed and by using Lefevre and Hatfield's ideas, how dialectic is brought about by the medium is argued. Lastly, in The Politics of Difference, this thesis establishes why Elmer is a satire in the assimilation ideal and how according to Kernan's theory, the politics of difference is the ideal that the satire presents in contrast to what it criticizes.