Berlatsky, Eric

This thesis The Representation and Evolution of Abusive Relationships: Harley Quinn and the Joker takes a psychoanalytic, gender, and media studies approach to comics such as Mad Love, The Batman Adventures, Suicide Squad and the film Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad (2016) Drawing on the work of Lenore Walker, Scott McCloud and other various scholars, this thesis will explore the distinctions in how the comics and film confront, disguise, or conceal the abuse. An analysis of the increasingly romanticized representation of abuse in the comics and film, where audience support for the couple and merchandizing were core concerns, reflect increasing audience participation in responding to and making demands upon narratives of toxic relationships and intimate partner violence.

This thesis examines different forms that ‘disidentification,’ as defined by Lisa Lowe and José Esteban Muñoz, takes in Bluebird: A Memoir by Vesna Maric and The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I further define ‘disidentification’ by narrowing down to two types that I coin ‘social disidentification’ and ‘political disidentification.’ I use ‘social disidentification’ as a model of survival and ‘political disidentification’ as a model of resistance. Throughout, I examine how the construct of multiculturalism effects the formation of migrant identities and because of this I look at which type of ‘disidentification’ the migrant will align with. By examining migrant identities and how they come to identify with some form of a British identity across both texts, I conclude that the idea of “Britishness” needs to be revised to be inclusive of all identities that make up the space of Britain rather than just including privileged identities.