Print ISBN: 979-8-89179-448-1
# of Pages: 300
# of Volumes: 1
Print List Price: $105
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e-ISBN: 979-8-89179-449-8
eBook User Price: $105
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Critical Insights: Sidekicks in Literature

February 2026

Tags: Critical InsightsCritical Contexts EssaysCritical Readings Essays

Sidekicks have long played crucial roles in literature and popular culture—from Sancho Panza’s grounded pragmatism in Don Quixote to Samwise Gamgee’s quiet heroism in The Lord of the Rings. While often cast in the background, sidekicks shape plotlines, support protagonists, complicate heroism, and challenge normative ideas of centrality, identity, and power. This volume investigates the role of sidekicks across literary and media traditions, uncovering how these characters enrich narrative structure, illuminate cultural values, and offer provocative alternatives to dominant figures.



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September 2018

Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes & Superheroes

Heroes and Superheroes collects the heroic tales of the super-powered crusader and the exploits of the morally ambiguous or derisive anti-hero that have become the seminal classics in the graphic novel landscape. Whether it is the vigilantism of Batman, the doubts of Spider-Man, or the tales of Norse myth in Thor, the techniques and traditions of literature are perpetuated in this medium of heroes and superheroes.

January 2022

Critical Insights: The Lord of the Rings

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings quickly became one of the most popular and influential novels of the twentieth century. It inspired not just one film but a series of well-received movies that brought Tolkien’s highly imaginative fantasy epic to life on the big screen. This volume about the novel discusses the work from numerous points of view, employing biographical, historical, cultural, mythic, and aesthetic approaches, among others.