Tricksters of Gotham

Tricksters of Gotham explores the "trickster" tale through an in-depth look at Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises.

The trickster figure is an ancient and variable figure, versions of which populate the myths and folklore of many human cultures worldwide. Conceptualising the trilogy as a single aggregate text with a clear narrative arc, the author explores the variety of trickster figures present in the films and draws clear parallels with the surrounding social and political context. Departing from the central argument that the Batman trilogy shows a variety of trickster characters, even Batman himself, this book shows contemporary trickster figures to be rich and relevant cultural resources that can focus our attention on those elements of the social order that have become too rigid, hierarchical, or exclusionary. The author argues that they can model tactics for engaging with tricksters when they inevitably arise in civic culture, offering insights about how to manage interactions with these figures who can be both productively disruptive and potentially destructive. This book pays close attention to the characters portrayed in the Nolan Batman trilogy—not only the Batman and the Joker but the more minor characters as well—to discover what trickster-like tactics they may offer. In this way, the book intends to render these films as a sort of equipment for civic life and to encourage similar analyses of other contemporary cultural artifacts.

Through close readings of these films, the book renders the Nolan Batman trilogy as what rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke refers to as “equipment for living.” This book will interest scholars and students of rhetoric and public culture, film studies, and communication.