Page - 101 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

Shadows of the Bat | 101www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 75–104 or the fight between order and chaos, justice and vengeance, rule and excep- tion (The Dark Knight, 2008). What image could be more suitable, then, to illus- trate these antagonisms than the shadowy figure of Batman, the very represen- tation of duality itself? his whole nature as bat-man, as semi-entity, symbolizes the permeability of boundaries as he unites hero and villain, light and darkness, man and beast, idea and matter (see fig. 28). Among his clownish foes and cir- cus counterparts, Batman is the true embodiment of the trickster archetype. He shifts between worlds, defies clear categories and signifies ambivalence. His multiplicity attracts artists like Burton and Nolan, who can express their indi- vidual vision through the versatility of his image. BiBLiOGrAPhy Bakhtin, Mikhail, 1984, rabelais and his World, Bloomington: indiana University Press. Balázs, Béla, 2011, Early Film Theory. Visible Man and the spirit of film, New york/Oxford: Berghahn Books. Boichel, Bill, 1991, Batman. Commodity as Myth, in: Pearson, roberta/Uricchio, William (eds.), the Many Lives of Batman. Critical Approaches to a superhero and his Media, New york: routledge, 4–17. Brooker, Will, 2012, hunting Down the Dark Knight. twenty-first Century Batman, London: i.B. tau- ris. Fig. 28: Batman’s shadowy appearance marks him as liminal character who inhabits a space between light and darkness, justice and anarchy, good and evil. Film still, Batman Returns (Tim Burton, US 1992), 00:55:37.