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Holy Stitches Batman, Or, Performative Villainy in Gothic/Am Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons English Theses & Dissertations English Fall 12-2020 Holy Stitches Batman, or, Performative Villainy in Gothic/am A. Luxx Mishou Old Dominion University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Mishou, A. L.. "Holy Stitches Batman, or, Performative Villainy in Gothic/am" (2020). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, English, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/q5jq-4c76 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds/110 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HOLY STITCHES, BATMAN, OR, PERFORMATIVE VILLAINY IN GOTHIC/AM by A. Luxx Mishou B.A. May 2005, Washington College M.A. December 2007, University of Maryland College Park A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY December 2020 Approved by: Manuela Mourão (Director) Edward Jacobs (Member) Avi Santo (Member) ABSTRACT HOLY STITCHES, BATMAN, OR, PERFORMATIVE VILLAINY IN GOTHIC/AM A. Luxx Mishou Old Dominion University, 2020 Director: Dr. Manuela Mourão Holy Stitches, Batman, or, Performative Villainy in Gothic/am is an interdisciplinary examination of gothic affect and deviant fashion in the narrative construction of villainy. It asks not just what a villain looks like, but what it means to look like a villain. A villain is a character who consciously and purposefully deviates from standards of normativity in order to pursue their own, often criminal, interests. The signifier of “villain” articulates a different purpose – an adversarial relationship with normativity that guides personal identification. Not exceptional to a gendered cultural system, they are informed by the societies in which they operate, and the cultural literacy of their authors. I argue that the materiality of these characters demonstrates sartorial literacy on the part of creators and audiences alike, and that the aesthetic representation of these villains is essential to the articulation of their deviance. Drawing on cultural history, literary studies, and media studies, I examine the villains of Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Beetle, Lady Audley’s Secret, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Uncle Silas, and Batman, and argue that the narrative dressing of villains is utilized to enforce normative categorical identities, but that these same material displays also challenge restrictive binary identifications of power, gender, and morality. iii Copyright, 2020, by A. Luxx Mishou, All Rights Reserved. iv This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, who supports me at my most villainous, and my children, who are always willing to be my henchmen. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the writing of this dissertation I have been supported by scholars who are truly dedicated to mentorship. I am particularly grateful for the mentorship of my dissertation chair, Dr. Manuela Mourão, whose enthusiasm for this project, and confidence in my abilities, made the whole thing feel both possible and important. Her guidance in Victorian and gender studies, and her trust in my ability to integrate and analyze Batman, buoyed my efforts and fed my excitement. She let me do my own work, but was always there to guide and correct course when I needed it, and my work is much stronger for her involvement. I am grateful for my dissertation readers, Dr. Edward Jacobs and Dr. Avi Santo. I’d like to thank Dr. Jacobs for his support and encouragement in not just pursuing this dissertation, but in continuing to push my work. His insight and feedback have been, and will continue to be, invaluable, and have greatly improved my scholarship and understanding. And to Dr. Avi Santo I’d like to express my enduring gratitude. Dr. Santo brought my attention to comics, and first suggested that I can and should work within the fields of comics and cosplay studies. He supported my drive towards interdisciplinarity, questioned my assumptions, and always pushed me to find bigger, better answers. His encouragement has given me the confidence to become the kind of scholar I want to be, and his mentorship has set me on that path. Distance scholarship can be incredibly isolating, but the friendship and support of Dr. Jessica Saxon and Syd McGinley has kept me grounded, kept me working, and kept me interested. They share wonderful citations, give sympathetic ears and ready eyes, and offer emotional and intellectual support when I need it most. The work of these brilliant scholars is vi amazing and inspiring. I look forward to a post-pandemic world where we can panel and write and edit together. I find support offline, too, and would like to thank my wonderful friends. From the Friday Night-ers who are my family, to the burly crew who support both my creative and intellectual efforts, I love you. To the Scobeys, who listen (even when I shout) and support and give me my safest space, and to Danny, who commiserates and challenges my impostor syndrome, I couldn’t have done it without you. I thank Angel, whom I miss dearly, and who always believed in me, and my mother, who believed in me first. There aren’t words of gratitude or love strong enough to express how I feel about and value my wife, Maddox. She’s been my enabler and primary supporter from the first, and I love her desperately. The readings of Madame de la Rougierre and the Beetle of chapter 3 were inspired by my analysis in “‘It was impossible such a creature could be feminine’: fashioning villainy and the language of the grotesque in Gothic fiction,” published in 2019 in Fashion and Material Culture in Victorian Fiction and Periodicals. The analysis of Jack the Ripper in chapter 4 was inspired by my work on “Murder for a Penny: Jack the Ripper and the Structural Impact of Sensational Reporting,” from the 2019 Wilkie Collins Journal special issue, Victorian Popular Journalism and Fiction: Interactions. And finally, I’d like to acknowledge my cat, Bedlam. It seems only fair that I give her credit for sitting in my lap and keeping me writing, when I otherwise may have walked away in frustration. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 Fashioning Stories ............................................................................................................... 2 “Wait till they get a load of me”: Defining “Villain” ......................................................... 6 Literature Review: On Comics ............................................................................................ 9 Fashion in Literary Studies ............................................................................................... 12 Gender, Queer Theory, and Fashioning the Other ............................................................ 15 The Plurality of the Other(s): On Race and Villainy ........................................................ 19 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 22 Rogues Gallery .................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter Descriptions ......................................................................................................... 32 2: IN PLAIN SIGHT: VILLAINS OF (NO) DISTINCTION ....................................................... 38 The Work and Play of Playing Dress-Up: Lady Audley’s Secret ..................................... 41 The Discretion of Gentlemen ............................................................................................ 46 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 69 3: “AND SINCE I CANNOT PROVE A LOVER” ..................................................................... 72 Othering from the Outside: The Theory of Disidentification ........................................... 74 Burning Strawmen: Punishment and the Performative Villain ......................................... 76 The Sartorial Spectacle of Madame de la Rougierre ......................................................... 81 Binary Slasher: The Beetle ................................................................................................ 96 The Gothic Villain in Gotham: Two-Face ...................................................................... 109 Femme Fatally: Poison Ivy ............................................................................................. 120 Conclusion: I Am What I Am ......................................................................................... 130 4: FIENDS OF VARIOUS SORTS ............................................................................................ 133 Trans-Atlantic Masculinities: A Family Story ................................................................ 135 The Threat of the Disinherited Son: Jack the Ripper ...................................................... 145 Something Clever: The Joker .........................................................................................
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