The Ascendance of Harley Quinn

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


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