Riddle me this, Batman!: essays on the universe of the Dark Knight

229 Pages·2011·12.162 MB·English

by  Leigh, Mary K.;Literarische Gestalt. Batman;Durand, Kevin Karl Jones

RIDDLE ME THIS,
BATMAN!
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R M T ,
IDDLE E HIS
B !
ATMAN
Essays on the Universe
of the Dark Knight
Edited by Kevin K. Durand and
Mary K. Leigh
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ALSOOFINTEREST
The Universe of Oz: Essays on Baum’s Series and Its Progeny
edited by Kevin K. Durand and Mary K. Leigh (2010)
Buffy Meets the Academy: Essays on the Episodes and Scripts
as Textsedited by Kevin K. Durand (2009)
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Riddle me this, Batman! : essays on the universe of
the Dark Knight / edited by Kevin K. Durand
and Mary K. Leigh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4629-2
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Batman (Fictitious character) I. Durand, Kevin K. J.
(Kevin Karl Jones), 1967– II. Leigh, Mary K.
PN6728.B363R53 2011
741.5'973—dc22 2011014385
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2011Kevin K. Durand and Mary K. Leigh. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover design by David Landis (Shake It Loose Graphics)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Contents
Preface
MARY K. LEIGH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction: What Has Adorno to Do with Gotham?
KEVIN K. DURAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Part One: The Ethics and Anarchy of Batman
1. Virtue in Gotham: Aristotle’s Batman
MARY K. LEIGH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2. The Dark Knight Errant: Power and Authority in
Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
CHRISTOPHER BUNDRICK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. Why Adam West Matters: Camp and Classical Virtue
KEVIN K. DURAND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4. Dark Knight, White Knight, and the King of Anarchy
STEPHANIE CARMICHAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5. Introducing a Little Anarchy: The Dark Knight and
Power Structures on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
SUDIPTO SANYAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Part Two: Batman and Literary Theory
6. Batman’s Canon: Hybridity and the Interpretation
of the Superhero
KEVIN K. DURAND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7. Seminar on the Purloined Batarang: Batman and Lacan
MITCH FRYE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
v
vi Contents
8. Queer Matters in The Dark Knight Returns: Why We Insist
on a Sexual Identity for Batman
JENÉE WILDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
9. The Hero We Read: The Dark Knight, Popular Allegoresis,
and Blockbuster Ideology
ANDREA COMISKEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
10. Rolling the Boulder in Gotham
RANDY DUNCAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
11. Figuration of the Superheroic Revolutionary:
The Dark Knight of Negation
D. T. KOFOED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Part Three: Batman and Beyond
12. “One May Smile, and Smile, and Be a Villain”:
Grim Humor and the Warrior Ethos
MELANIE WILSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
13. “And Doesn’t All the World Love a Clown?”: Finding
the Joker and the Representation of His Evil
MICHAEL SMITH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
14. Call It (Friendo): Flipism and Folklore in No Country for
Old Men and The Dark Knight
MATTHEW FOTIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
About the Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Preface
MARY K. LEIGH
In collecting a volume of essays related to Batman, there is always the
question of how to select the essays and what balance to provide to such a
study. In the Introduction, Kevin K. Durand outlines our particular approach
to popular culture studies and demonstrates the framework by which the rest
of the essays in this collection were selected. This text argues that the Critical
Engagement method is the best way to conduct any study of popular culture,
advocating for what the interpretation says about the text itself, not how we
may use a text to provide examples for a theory. This is not to say that exam-
ples for a theory are not useful or important, but that a disciplined study of
popular culture needs to take the next step and provide an analysis of what
the application of a type of analysis allows the audience to understand about
the text under consideration, in this case, the world of Batman in its many
conceptions and re-conceptions.
In this collection, several essays begin by providing examples at the outset
before turning to engage the text in the more rigorous way that Durand terms
the Critical Engagement method. In Part One, “The Ethics and Anarchy in
Batman,” my essay, “Virtue in Gotham” for example, engages the text and
the reader with an analysis of The Dark Knightthat, while Aristotelian, is not
merely a starting point. Christopher Bundrick’s essay, “The Dark Knight
Errant,” explores the psychoanalytic development of Bruce Wayne, providing
a lens through which to view his ethical standpoint. Focusing on a particular
incarnation of Batman, Durand argues in “Why Adam West Matters” that
the Batman of Adam West is particularly noteworthy for its depiction of a
theory of friendship that differs markedly from the standard philosophy of
friendship from Aristotle forward, drawing together and furthering the ideals
presented earlier. In “Dark Knight, White Knight, and the King of Anarchy”
Stephanie Carmichael leads readers through an engaging character analysis
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2 Preface
designed to allow them to create connections and devise many theoretical
approaches on their own. Ethics also leads to analysis of anarchy; thus, in
“Introducing a Little Anarchy,” Sudipto Sanyal explores the psychological
dysfunction of the Joker and Harvey Dent, respectively, as tools for grappling
with the nature of power.
Part Two, “Batman and Literary Theory,” opens with an urgent question
in literary criticism—what constitutes the canon when there are so many dif-
ferent texts vying for readership and viewership? Durand argues in “Batman’s
Canon” that Batman presents us with a most interesting moment in literary
criticism, a canon in flux that necessarily must include most interpretations
of the story, even those that may contradict each other. The following essays
approach the canon from many theoretical frameworks, from Mitch Frye’s
Lacanian analysis of Batman in the midst of mental crisis in “Seminar on the
Purloined Batarang” to “Queer Matters in The Dark Knight Returns,” Jenée
Wilde’s careful interpretation of our insistence on a sexual identity for Batman.
Andrea Comiskey provides an analysis of popular culture through the medium
of popular culture, addressing the many allegorical interpretations of Batman,
not just in typical scholarship, but also in the work of journalists, film critics,
and online bloggers in “The Hero We Read.” Randy Duncan, “Rolling the
Boulder in Gotham,” and D. T. Kofoed, “Figuration of the Superheroic Rev-
olutionary,” complete the literary criticism by analyzing the deeply complex
world of Batman in comic books, analyzing the role of Gotham as a city to
the development of Batmanand the reality of a superhero revolutionary cre-
ated through careful use of comic book artistry, respectively.
Part Three, “Batman and Beyond,” demonstrates not only what we may
learn about Batman itself, but also what we may understand about Batman
when studying it in relation to another text. Melanie Wilson, “‘One May
Smile, and Smile, and Be a Villain,’” and Michael Smith, “‘And Doesn’t All
the World Love a Clown?,’” each take on the nature of the smiling villain,
alluding to Shakespeare as they explore the concepts of good and evil. Finally,
in “Call It (Friendo),” Matthew Fotis places Batmanin the concept of another
piece of popular culture, No Country for Old Men, drawing readers into a dis-
cussion of coin-flipping, a tradition so ingrained in cultures that we often do
not see its potential significance for understanding psychological motivation.
While all of these essays clearly relate to one another, they also stand as
independent examinations of Batmanand the universe it has inspired as texts
in themselves. As scholars who wish to approach popular culture through the
Critical Engagement method, it is the hope of the contributors to this volume
that the decision to engage the universe of the Batman as a text is in keeping
with this choice.
Introduction
What Has Adorno to Do with Gotham?
KEVIN K. DURAND
Superheroes dot the landscape of the 20th and 21st Century imagination.
Batman, Superman, the X-Men, Watchmen, and so many others vie for our
time and attention, endure multiple reimaginings at the hands of writers,
directors, and actors, and continue as a staple of reading and viewing pleasure.
However, Batman occupies a particular privilege of place in the superhero
pantheon. It is that privilege of place that this volume seeks to explore—to
understand what Batman has for our conversations of good, evil, society, indi-
viduality, heroic virtue, and thoughts of home. There are those who would
quickly dismiss Batman and the rest of the superheroes. They might suggest
that they are nothing but comics, caped clowns, easily discarded pop culture
artifacts—summer blockbuster, scholarly popcorn that doesn’t last through
the movie itself, much less into deep reflection on questions of serious import.
Such views clearly are on the wane, but one still encounters them in the quest
of truth, meaning, and understanding through the examination of popular
culture. Indeed, anytime one comes to popular culture, one is faced with the
question of popular culture scholarship—to what extent is popular culture
scholarship merely an academic playground in which self-important folks
read far more into a work than it contains? Or, perhaps, the question is even
more fundamental—is popular culture scholarship worthwhile scholarship at
all?
There are those who dismiss all things Batman as comic-book culture,
as trifling fancy, as superfluous distraction from more important matters. To
those “critics,” I will not discuss Batman’s legacy, the psychoanalytic investi-
gations of good and evil, the mirror of the world of Gotham and our own,
or the grip that Batman has on the imagination of countless people. Instead,
3