Film Scholarship And The Cultural Politics Of The Dark Knight

New Criticism attempts to extricate the work of the author from matters extraneous to the text. The psychology and biography of the author should no longer be the lense through which the text is viewed, but rather a work of literary art should be “regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself”(Hawkes, pp. 150-151). Though this new movement in critical literary theory is effective in allowing a text to create its own context for a message, it inherently removes much of the meaning attributed to the work due to historical context. Historical context serves as more than just backdrop to a novel. The interplay between the various ideas and discourses popular at any given time inarguably affect

Film Scholarship and the Cultural Politics of the Dark Knight”, Martin Fradley explores how Christopher Nolan imbues his Dark Knight trilogy with enough political intelligence and seriousness of purpose to “critically rehabilitate the most derogated of cinematic forms: the fantasy blockbuster.”(Fradley, 1). The article discusses how beneath the Hollywood cinematography and special effects the film series tackles relevant contemporary issues such as the use of torture as an interrogation technique, the invasion of privacy for the greater good, and the rising economic disparity between socioeconomic classes. Despite the film’s apparent noble purpose, Fradley still offers the caveat that “the ultimate goal of American filmed entertainment is to give ‘the maximum pleasure for the maximum number [of viewers] for the maximum profit’’” (Fradley, 6)(Maltby, 472). It for this reason that so many aspects of the Dark Knight have to be viewed as inherently multi-dimensional. The film series has to be seen as an exploration of differing political positions, with ambiguity being key, as opposed to a straightforward argument for one political view over another. The Dark Knight himself needs to wrestle with contemporary contradictions and moral ambiguity in his own actions, so as to become more than a Superman analogue who can do no wrong. Batman must be a “figure straddling a fault line”(Brooker 217). Within both the Dark Knight Trilogy and Michael

With the vast majority of the American populace (the main audience for both the movie and the novel) being disaffected with the nihilistic militarism brought about by the post-9/11 war on terror, it is a time of backlash against any invasive or untruthful methods used by the government, even its end goal is worth pursuing. Though the novel Timeline was written long after Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal which launched the new wave of distrust towards our political leaders, the rebellion against oppressive controls and tactics used by the government was nowhere near as strong then as it is now. The Snowden leaks, the creation of the Patriot Acts, as well as other invasions of privacy provide the backdrop for the new Batman trilogy. The Dark Knight’s infringement of the same civil liberties so recently harmed in reality shows the same element of “darkness in the pursuit of light” that is shown in Doniger in