| Title: | The Popular Culture of Batman |
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| Course Section Number: | FRT-101-17 |
| Department: | Freshman Tutorial |
| Description: | Julian Whitney is an Assistant Professor of English at Wabash College. His area(s) of research and teaching include British Romanticism and law and literature. Outside of class he enjoys playing electric guitar, learning Japanese, and playing Japanese role-playing games such as Final Fantasy. The mythology of the Caped Crusader remains ubiquitous in American popular culture with the recent release of Matt Reeves's film, The Batman (2022). Batman the character is a provocative, if not complex, individual with a complicated history of motives and relationships. He has infiltrated every area of our American cultural apparatus from comic books to movies, television shows, video games, soundtracks, action figures, and costumes. Likewise, Batman media has also contributed to discussions about family and foster care, politics and corruption, love and obsession, and chaos vs. order. This course will focus on Batman's representations across different genres and mediums as we attempt to probe the question: who is Batman and what purpose does he serve? We will examine several iconic graphic novels ranging from Batman: Year One and Batman: The Long Halloween to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. We will also survey Batman filmography over several decades by comparing Tim Burton's gothic-inspired characterization of Batman in Batman Returns to Christopher Nolan's grounded interpretations of the character in The Dark Knight Trilogy. Course assignments will range from several analytical papers, quizzes, and oral presentations, to composing your own Batman story and writing a research paper on some element of Batman culture. |
| Credits: | 1.00 |
| Start Date: | August 24, 2022 |
| End Date: | December 17, 2022 |
| Meeting Information: |
09/20/2022-12/15/2022 Lecture Tuesday, Thursday 09:45AM - 11:00AM, Center Hall, Room 304
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| Faculty: | Whitney, Julian |
Course Status
| Section Name/Title | Status | Dept. | Capacity |
Enrolled/ Available/ Waitlist |
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