Nascida da tormenta, a última de seu nome: construtos de (des)empoderamento feminino a partir de Daenerys Targaryen

Abstract

This research seeks to analyze the constructs of female (dis)empowerment in audiovisual media through the character of Daenerys Targaryen, from Game of Thrones (2011 – 2019). Other characters that belong to an expanded corpus are also evoked. The main objective of this work is to comprehend the ways in which (dis)empowerment is constructed and, specifically, to look at its technical, esthetic, and narrative resources. Thus, it would be possible to apprehend how power, or the loss of it, is produced in the characters’ stories as a technocultural construct. The theoretical discourse contextualizes the term (dis)empowerment through a feminist approach. Afterwards, it gives an overview on the relations of power interwoven in society and how gender and female representation in audiovisual media are affected by it. Lastly, it discusses the memorial and technocultural layers in the images, in which lasting significations that are constantly updating themselves are inscribed. The methodology is of memorial character, where the researcher inserts herself as the subject that perceives the constructs in order to find significations. The movements used, which make up the methodological frame, are cartography, the wandering of the flânerie, the creation of thematic collections, and dissection, which resulted in three constellations titled The powerful woman, The incapable woman, and The discarded woman. Thus, from the tension between the empirical object, the methodological movements, and the theoretical framework, this work seeks to present the different ways in which female (dis)empowerment is portrayed in the images, considering that the lasting and updating aspects found in them come from the contact between technology/technique and culture.