The Dark Knight

Globalgothic focuses on certain negative aspects of globalisation, including corporatism, neo-imperialism and the dangers of living in a high-risk culture that frequently sails perilously close to catastrophe. An interesting twenty-first-century version of gothic, The Dark Knight reworks classic gothic devices to structure its plot dynamic. It not only adapts the concept of the city space as threatening but also exploits the figure of the double or doppelganger. The Dark Knight is a work that openly focuses on men, power and the law despite its flirtation with romantic love. In fact what The Dark Knight illustrates so chillingly are the threats, uncertainties and negative spin-offs that result from what Zygmunt Bauman has termed 'liquid modernity'. Bauman's vision seems to be reflected in The Dark Knight to generate a potent, if perhaps only half-consciously realised, fear in the audience: fear of political, economic and judicial impotence in a 'speedflow' world.