Abstract

SREEPADA, Nihar  and  DOMINGUEZ PARTIDA, Gabriel. Exploring affect, identity, and populism in and around Todd Phillips’ Joker. Rev. panam. comun. [online]. 2022, vol.4, n.2, pp.177-193.  Epub Apr 21, 2023. ISSN 2683-2208.  https://doi.org/10.21555/revistapanamericanadecomunicacin.v4i2.2713.

Cultural identity has become a fluid concept in which several positionalities converge; most of them are influenced greatly by popular culture, causing a constant individual negotiation between their real lives and the image on the screen. In 2019, Todd Phillips’s Joker achieved worldwide success not only at the box office but also in critical appraisal. Unlike previous representations of this villain as a disruptive social persona, Joker showed the main character as a political figure that gives agency and voice to the people who are socially repressed. The impact of this representation transcended Anglo cultures to the extent of symbolizing a populist uprising and a growing anti-government sentiment. Nevertheless, this figure’s appropriation brings two problematic ideological standpoints to the goal these groups aim: violence as the only alternative to restoring equality in society and color blindness that silences the struggles that cultures face depending on their context.

Keywords : Social identity; representation; Joker; violence; color blindness.

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