Schema Theory and Contemporary Literature: A Stylistic Study of Christopher Nolan's The Joker
Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the effects of discourse deviations in contemporary literature on the schema of readers/viewers, and on other characters in a certain literary work. The paper explains how certain characters in literary works can be compelling, challenging, and intriguing due to the different schemata they possess and project on their readers\viewers, and on other characters in the literary work as well. Christopher Nolan’s The Joker character in his screenplay, The Dark Knight, is a significant sample of how these effects take place. This paper discusses what makes The Joker a challenging character to the audience and the protagonist, and the ways in which The Joker creates schema refreshments. The paper concludes that through constant discourse deviations, The Joker allows the audience and the protagonist to make constant schema refreshment by altering language schemata, text schemata, or both of them. Thus, allowing the world schema of an individual to change consequently. These deviations, and the resulting schema refreshments make The Joker an intriguing, challenging, and compelling character to the audience.
References
Barkman, A. (2023). Christopher Nolan’s joker as a consistent naturalist (and that’s still a bad thing). Religions, 14(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121535
Bartlett, F. C. (2003). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press.
Baxter, L. (2020). Batman: The dark knight: The joker’s pursuit of justice in an unjust world. In Fear Within Melting Boundaries (pp. 89-97). https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848880535_011
Casanova Varela, B. (2019). The forge of the psychopath, The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan). Revista de Medicina y Cine, 15(1), 17-23. https://doi.org/10.14201/rmc.20238
Cook, G. (1990). A theory of discourse deviation: The application of schema theory to the analysis of literary discourse (Doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds).
Cook, G. (1994). Discourse and literature: The interplay of form and mind. Oxford University Press.
Dudas, J. R. (2021). You complete me: Batman, joker, and the countersubversive politics of American law and order. Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, 85, 49-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720210000085004
Dudenhoeffer, L. (2011). Masks of infamy: The about-faces in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts, (12). https://doi.org/10.2218/forum.12.665
Emmott, C., & Alexander, M. (2014). Schemata. In Handbook of Narratology (pp. 756–764). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110316469.756
Hill-Parks, E. (2011). Identity construction and ambiguity in Christopher Nolan films. Wide Screen, 3(1), 1-18. http://widescreenjournal.org
Mckee, R. (1997). Story: Substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting. Regan Books.
Nilsson, J. (2020). Moments of intermediality: The use of television in joker narratives. Convergence, 26(2), 386-401. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856518786010
Nolan, C., Goyer, D. S., & Nolan, J. (2012). The Dark Knight trilogy: Batman begins; The Dark Knight; The Dark Knight rises. Opus.
Olson, D. (2022). Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008): Interrogations, lies, & anarchic jokers. In Palgrave Gothic (pp. 215-235). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17016-4_10
Olson, D. (2022). Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012): Prisons, bombs, & catalytic catwomen. In Palgrave Gothic (pp. 237-245). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17016-4_11
Santos, D. S. (2018). Channeling libidinal instincts in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy (Master’s thesis, Texas A&M International University). Theses and Dissertations, 10. https://rio.tamiu.edu/etds/10
Semino, E. (1995). Schema theory and the analysis of text worlds in poetry. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 4(2), 79–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/096394709500400201
Short, M. (2013). Exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. Routledge.
Yılmaz, G. E. (2022). Constructing and deconstructing the modern hero in The Dark Knight Trilogy. SAGE Open, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221128476
