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dc.contributor.authorPeters, Timothy D
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-05T00:49:35Z
dc.date.available2017-05-05T00:49:35Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.identifier.issn1038-3441
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/10383441.2015.1096985
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/101651
dc.description.abstractClose readings of popular culture texts can illuminate the complexities of the narratives of law and justice that influence our legal imaginary, and provide a means for re-reading our concepts of legality. This article explores Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy not as a depiction of a traditional superhero who conservatively operates to supplement the legal system's goal of justice and restore the social order disrupted by criminals, villains or some other extraordinary threat, but as a non-hero who proposes a critique of justice and legality itself. It reads Batman as a Christological figure specifically because of his actions at the conclusion of the second film, The Dark Knight, in taking the blame for the murders committed by District Attorney Harvey Dent. In exploring what is an uncomfortable conclusion to the second film, I unpack how Nolan ‘makes strange’ the traditional superhero mythos and the narratives they tell of justice, law and legality. In this sense, The Dark Knight can be read as a Christological response to, as much as an expansion and fulfilment of, the rise of the superhero film and the superhero as a figure of the exception beyond the law.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherGriffith University Law School
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom1
dc.relation.ispartofpageto28
dc.relation.ispartofjournalGriffith Law Review
dc.subject.fieldofresearchLaw not elsewhere classified
dc.subject.fieldofresearchLaw
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode180199
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode1801
dc.titleBeyond the limits of the law: a Christological reading of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
dc.description.versionVersion of Record (VoR)
gro.facultyArts, Education & Law Group, School of Law
gro.rights.copyright© 2015 Griffith Law School. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorPeters, Timothy D.


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