The Ascendance of Harley Quinn: Essays on DC's Enigmatic Villain

by Shelley E. Barba (Editor), Joy M. Perrin (Editor)

Overview

Since her first appearance in 1992, Harley Quinn--eccentric sidekick to the Joker--has captured the attention of readers like few new characters have in eight decades of Batman comics. Her bubbly yet malicious persona has earned her a loyal and growing fan base as she has crossed over into television, theater, video games, and film.

In this collection of new essays, contributors explore her various iterations, focusing on her origin and contexts, the implications of her abusive relationship with the Joker, her relationships with other characters, her representations across media, and the philosophic basis of her character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476665238
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	10/31/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	239
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Shelley E. Barba is an associate librarian at Texas Tech University. She has published in such journals as College & Research Libraries, The Reference Librarian, and Texas Library Journal. She lives in Lubbock, Texas. Joy M. Perrin is an associate librarian at Texas Tech University. She has written many articles on the topic of digital collections. She lives in Lubbock, Texas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. The Setup
“It is to laugh”: The History of Harley Quinn (Emilee Owens)
Harlequin Romance: The Power of Parody and Subversion (Cia Jackson)
She Laughs by Night: Mad Love, the New 52 and Noir (Gregory Bray)
The Clock Is Ticking (Brandon Benge)
Part 2. Relationship with the Joker
“That just proves he wants me back”: Pure Victimhood,
Agency and Intimate Partner Violence in Comic Book
Narratives (K. Scarlett Harrington and Jennifer A. Guthrie)
Bride of the Monster: Harley Quinn as a Case of Hybristophilia (Michał Siromski)
A New Kind of Leading Lady: The Complexity of Surviving
Abuse and Becoming a Hero (Willmaria C. Miranda)
Part 3. Relationships with Others
Duality and Double Entendres: ­Bi-Coding the Queen Clown
of Crime from Subtext to Canon (Alex Liddell)
Victim, Villain or Antihero: Relationships and Personal
Identity (Amanda Hoyer)
“Stronger than their madhouse walls”: Disrupting Gotham’s
Freak Discourse in “Mad Love” and “Harley Quinn” (Aidan Diamond)
Part 4. Representations
Arkham Origins: Looking at ­Grown-Up Themes Through
the Lens of a Kid’s TV Show (Derek Moreland)
Harlequin, Nurse, Street Tough: From ­Non-Traditional Harlequin to Sexualized Villain to Subversive Antihero (Justin Wigard)
Problematic Fave: Gendered Stereotypes in the Arkham
Video Game Series (Ian Barba)
The Motley Queen: A “Spicy Package” of Misrule (Erica McCrystal)
Part 5. Philosophy
There Shall Be Order from Chaos: Hope and Agency Through the Harlequine’s Subalternity (Michelle Vyoleta Romero Gallardo and Nelson)
Arteaga Botello
The “Mistress of Mayhem” as a Proxy for the Reader:
A Metafictional Link Between Fiction and Reality (Megan Sinclair)
Super-Villain or Sociopath: Evilness at the Turn of the Century
(Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and Leonardo Acosta Lando)
Appendix: A Mediography of Harley Quinn (Joy M. Perrin)
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

Essays offer plenty of food for thought and leave you trying to decide which side you fall on; is she a victim or villain?”—Artistic Bent; "has gained a large fanbase and quickly became one of DCs most popular female characters”—Sequart Organization; "one of the most popular villains of the DC Comics universe...unique...fills the gaps”—Focus; “One of the most popular characters in the DC comicsverse, Harley Quinn is adored by many despite her status as an antihero.  This collection of essays is a welcome addition to the scholarship about female characters that are often overlooked in study of genre fiction.”—Sherry Ginn, Marvel’s Black Widow from Spy to Superhero.

From the Publisher