Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Lisa King

Committee Members

Hilary Havens, Maria Stehle

Abstract

The People’s Joker, directed by Vera Drew, serves as an example of collaborative rhetorical creation through a genderpunk lens, establishing a critique of cisgender normativity through a parody of DC Comics’s Batman franchise. Using sociohistorical analysis, film analysis, and community engagement research, I argue that the film creates and displays this rhetoric through its collaborative production practices, emphasis on the role of community embodied by the Red Hood Gang, and the resultant impact and social media presence developed among fans and critics of the film. Additionally, the argument is built and displayed through a written component and a digital WordPress website, engaging a mode of scholarship that seeks to emulate the collaborative nature of the film. Through this website, the argument not only reaches a broader audience through accessible means, but additionally creates a platform for fans and others to collaborate on analyses of the film among other projects.

The website can be found through this link: https://communaljoking1.wordpress.com/

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