Dante’s talk is called “Interpreting the Norse God ‘Thor’ in Novels and Movies”
With the rapid growth of popular cultures, the Norse god Thor has become an endless inspiration among screenwriters, novelists, and game designers. However, most previous studies only evaluated this figure within the same sources, namely between books, instead of between different forms of media. Henceforth, this theoretical research applying Diffusion Theory aims to fill in these limitations by analyzing the interpretations of Thor’s mystical identity and appearance in the two most popular leisure resources: movies and novels. Previous studies described Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as the symbol of both ancient power forces and post-human ability as he expressed normal human emotions (e.g. arrogance and love) or performed humanistic activities (e.g. flying planes or using phones). On the contrary, novels like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods placed the mighty Thor as a supporter of the protagonist on a mystical quest. The results suggest film producers, game creators and novelists view Thor at different angles during content development. Mythologists are encouraged to view his story and companions critically to develop new scientific theories.
About Dante
Quan Dieu “Dante” Luong” holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies, specializing in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam. He will soon receive his master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Dante is an educational researcher who has been conducting many projects on English teaching methodologies and innovations in students’ attitudes and beliefs towards this subject. His contributions to and efforts in such academic words have been recognized and inspired by his colleagues and students. Dante also has a keen interest in myths, cryptids, legends, and fairy tales around the world. Having seen several mythological-based televisions, reading topic-related books, and teaching mythology as a higher education’s practicum project, he realized that there are fantastic stories across the globe that have been forgotten by time and wait to be explored by compassionate mythologists or myth hunters. Despite his experience in doing research and presenting his works at many conferences, this is his first time presenting his works at the Fates and Graces Mythologium, where he can give his favorite research topics and work toward his future goal of pursuing the degree of mythological studies.