So I had a marvellous time at the University of Edinburgh the other day, invited to talk to a fantastic crowd of engaged, interested, and insightful as all heck students from across the MSc and PhD courses for Intermediality. And because of branded biscuits, I’ve got a great big document to drop here…
It’s my old course, student of the first year, and it was a joy to see how much it had caught on a couple of years later. Hopping to the point, by the end, all those folks — perhaps you? — were asking what I’d done for my dissertation, and with a touch of trepidation (seeing as most in my year had done very high culture things, like avant-garde cinema or experimental theatre) I replied that my title was… See post title. Cue a delightful, heartening, massively affirming great big happy reaction, and a whole lot of faces eager to hear about what I’d mostly resigned to sleep in a desktop folder. I won’t forget that!
Batman, across 80 years of canon, across every medium available on the high street. About as pop culture as you can get, but for me, that’s the good stuff: why mind the niches only, and disregard the billion dollar media empires? I was just doing my civic duty to point out the elephant in the room. The one wearing a bat costume…
We talked Batman biscuits (his face was on an Oreo in 2022), we talked LEGO Batman, we talked a little of the films, and all in all, they wanted my dissertation uploaded. So here you go, Batfans, in a PDF download link below: they gave me my best grade for it, it won me a Distinction overall, and if it helps you figure out your subject, if it guides you to your next bit of Batman media, or if it’s just a fun read… Enjoy!
THE INTERMEDIAL MYTH OF THE BATMAN