‘Whatever doesn’t Kill You Simply Makes You Stranger’: Fear in the Character of T he Joker in The Dark Knight and Joker
The Joker is one of the most frightening comic book characters ever created and has, as a result, been the subject of numerous adaptations to film and television. This article analyses the portrayals of the Joker by actors Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix inThe Dark Knight (2008) and Joker(2019),res...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositorio: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/151471 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/151471 https://doi.org/10.12795/REN.2022.i26.02 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | The Joker Fear The Dark Knight Joker Pop-culture Film El Joker Miedo El caballero oscuro Cultura popular Cine |
| Sumario: | The Joker is one of the most frightening comic book characters ever created and has, as a result, been the subject of numerous adaptations to film and television. This article analyses the portrayals of the Joker by actors Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix inThe Dark Knight (2008) and Joker(2019),respectively, and the differences in their representations of the Joker in relation to fear. Italso explores how the two films serve as allegorical representations of public fears present at the time of the films’ creation, and how these fears are either embodied in or experienced by each films’ Joker. Fear elements utilized by eachfilm’sJokercharacterare also analysed, i.e., acts of terrorism, use of make-up, and laughter. Moreover, the article’s treatment ofthe Joker reveals a character who is a victim both of public fears and of his own traumatic past—fearful experiences which come to shapethe Joker’s violent persona. The article’s comparative analysis makes use of psychological and sociological explanations of fear and its characteristics. |
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