Representações de gênero e cultura das mídias: uma análise de Game of thrones

Abstract

Game of Thrones encompasses the diverse tensions, contradictions, requisitions, and restrictions of gender representation in contemporary audiovisual. On the one hand, its narrative portrays and highlights numerous intricate female characters. However, on the other, women are usually presented through nudity and graphic violence. Furthermore, there are plentiful scenes depicting rape, abuse, and domestic violence, which are primarily related to male characters, mostly because the fictional universe is strongly characterized as patriarchal, misogynistic, and nobiliary. Hence, this masters’ thesis aims to scrutinize how Game of Thrones narratively builds gender representation. The goal is to examine which discourses are triggered and produced while portraying women in a condition of extreme oppression and gendered violence. On that account, this analysis uses Gender Studies and Feminist Studies as its theoretical references, mainly the contributions brought up by Joan Scott, Rosalind Gill, Raewyn Connell, and James Messerschmidt. Additionally, in order to identify how the audiovisual elements are depicted, it uses film analysis as methodology. For gender is placed in the core of the fictional political system in Game of Thrones, the scope of this investigation is centered on the structure of power. Whereas gender is perceived as one of the basis to exert political authority, the narrative, simultaneously, present an opposition against this authority. The selected scope allows this research to investigate how the political dynamics, related to gender, are developed and represented in the series. Moreover, it helps to understand the discourses created by the series about gender. To examine how the relationships involving the structure of power are portrayed, this analysis focuses on the rise of politically marginalized groups. For this reason, this work observes the groups that permeate the dominant spectrum of the oppression, and also the resistance actions of the subordinate groups. Hence, this investigation focuses on the analysis of the narrative paths of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister, and Sansa Stark.