To begin we have to clear some things. First, I don't know what an anit-genre is. I just know that I can't find another label for Batman's discursive actions. Second, this ideas assumes that genre is a product of discourse. Genre is the available means of communication or social action (in this case) that is defined by the ideology of the discourse (created and maintained by the people within the discourse community). Third, this is viewing Gotham as a Discourse ( a discourse community at least).
In the movie, the Joker summed up Gotham Discourse (GD) beautifully (misplaced modifier). The mob tries to control the city. The police try to stop the mob from controlling the city. Everyone else acts according to whomever the power balance is leaning towards at the time. This is a patterned process. Everyone seems cool with the status quo. These are acceptable social actions, discursive products.
Then comes along Batman. Who is, by all rights, a product of GD. But he is freaking everyone out. He is a product of this discourse but the agents of the discourse (the people of Gotham--police, citizens, city officials, mobsters) all view him as some kind of freak. And he can be labeled as a genre in that fact that people try to copy what he does. The environment is reproducing the genre. Before you can be an anti-genre you have to be a genre first (ok, that really made no sense). Sort of like either dying a hero or living long enough to see yourself become a villain.
The funny thing is that Batman, a product of GD, is repelled by the very ideology that saw his genesis. He can't exist without the discourse, but the discourse will not full accept him as viable genre. The only way I can conceive of labeling this is the anti-genre. Ok its not the only way but its the coolest. I could go on about the Joker as an anti-genre and deeper into identity issues and agency with this but, this blog post is already way too long. But one more quick thing.
One other way to look at this is to view Batman and the Joker as contrastive discourse that rebelled from GD in some way to form their own parallel discourse. Parallel Discourses just sounds awesome.
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1 comment:
Cool. I liked it. I would call it "Hero", "Fantasy" or maybe even "Drama" if I was forced into picking a genre. I love the idea of genre because he is an anti-hero. He's a vigilante, in the same vein as Clint Eastwood in his Dirty Harry films (though Batman came first to be fair).
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