Epiphanic Imagery in Stories of Heroines. A Case Study of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Captain Marvel

How do you recognise a god? Classical myth tells us that we can identify the gods by their beauty, height, strength, and aroma. Moreover, they are associated with light, fire, and other such phenomena. When they manifest to mortals, their audience is struck by a variety of emotional and physical reactions, ranging from fear to joy, paralysis to trembling. This appearance and reaction is an epiphany.

These visual markers continue to be used in modern story-telling. This presentation, available below, considers how epiphanic imagery is used in two recent heroic stories: She-Ra and Captain Marvel. The epiphanic scenes in both stories draw on ancient understandings of when, how, and why gods manifest themselves to humanity; moreover, this visual trope sparks the same kinds of audience reactions known to us from ancient sources. The fundamental difference, however, is in the epiphanic source. Rather than a god, angel, or fairy-godparent, the source of epiphany is the heroine herself. This fundamentally shifts how epiphany is used, making it a means empowering the heroine.

Gillian Glass is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies. Her dissertation considers the place of epiphanies in Jewish, Christian, and pagan fiction and novelesque literature. Gillian’s project considers the uses of this motif across cultures as a means of exploring shared religious expression. Gillian is also involved with the TA union, CUPE 2278, where she is president.