SOAR Project: Alexa Walby, English Education/LMIS
鈥淎 Psychoanalytic Analysis of Joker鈥�
Alexa Walby, Dickinson, ND
English Education/LMIS
Mentor: Dr. J. Gregory Brister
In my English 371: Critical Theory course, I dedicated my final project to psychoanalyzing Arthur Fleck from the film, Joker. Within the four page parameters of that assignment, I wrote about Fleck鈥檚 lack of a superego, and I used Freud鈥檚 Wit and Its Relation to support my statement by examining Fleck鈥檚 jokes. In this project, I dove deeper into my analysis of this film by furthering my explanation of why Fleck became the man he was along with discussing why this film became a cultural phenomenon. I wrote about Fleck鈥檚 sense of humor and explored multiple different scenes that show his childhood, family dynamic, and the acceptance of his true self. I used Parker鈥檚 How to Interpret Literature, Freud鈥檚 Wit and Its Relation, and various works from Jaques Lacan and Julia Kristeva. The paper discusses in detail how Arthur Fleck shifts from attempting to conform the Symbolic Order to giving in to chora and chaos.