https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i2.009
Schizophrenic Insurgency: A Deleuzo-Guattarian Analysis of Joker (2019)
Dr Lakshmi K. Babu
Assistant Professor (Guest)
Bharata Mata College (Autonomous), Thrikkakara
Abstract: The contemporary cityscape, constantly bombarded with electronic media, Big Data, digital screens and surveillance presupposes assemblages of power, hierarchy and enterprising of human resources. The capitalist and networked space manufactures schizophrenics who are labelled as the other, and are excluded from continuing their life in peace. They are caught in the vortex of the illusion of good life and the reality of exploitation. The paper attempts to study the character of Arthur performed by Joaquin Phoenix in Joker (2019), directed by Todd Philips. In the unequal capitalist system of Gotham, Arthur exhibits forms of schizophrenia that are apprehended to be signs of resistance to life. Initially he finds contentment in accepting the system but he refuses to conform to it at a juncture. The event, or the juncture is the schizophrenic ‘turn’ that Arthur adopts after which he refuses to play the victim in the infernal game of capitalism. The habitual chaos in Gotham leaves an impact on the attitude and behaviour of Arthur and others who begin to resist the system. The paper studies the different outlooks and approaches towards schizophrenia by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Fredrich Jameson, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Deleuze and Filex Guattari perceive the schizophrenic as the subversive icon of postmodern politics. The paper attempts to read schizophrenia as ‘clinical’ and ‘critical’ that observes a negotiation between the subject, the body, the world and the language in films.
Keywords: schizophrenia, capitalism, resistance, postmodern subjectivity, urban alienation, surveillance capitalism
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