As duas faces de uma vilã: desconstrução e diálogos entre as malévolas do cinema e da literatura

Abstract

A myriad of themes about the representation of women have been deconstructed in recent decades, and some of them are found in fairy tales, the villains. The role of women in children’s stories is evident, whether as princesses or as witches. However, the latter rarely had the opportunity to tell or show their own stories, until the release of Maleficent, by Disney screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, in 2014. Maleficent shows the point of view of a type of character that is iterant in children’s stories, but who, theretofore, had been extremely restricted and banned from social relations in countless societies, from the most ancient times to even our contemporaneity. However, deconstructionist activities have revealed the most famous witch of all times, Maleficent, as a protagonist capable of developing her voice and being the subject of her own story. In view of this, this master’s thesis presents a study of the appropriation process of Disney Studios’ animation, Sleeping Beauty (1959), for the elaboration of Maleficent (2014), by Woolverton. We have found that throughout this process, the screenwriter deconstructs the character of the witch, by making two dissimilar characteristics, the villain and the heroine, to coexist inseparably in the same character. Thus, an in-depth study about women has been necessary, with Michelle Perrot (2005) (2017); Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar (2020); Simone de Beauvoir (2019a) (2019b); Gerda Lerner (2019); Pierre Bourdieu (2020); and Virginia Woolf (1997) (2019), among others. In addition, we have considered important readings about children’s stories: Tzvetan Todorov (2008); David Roas (2014); Bruno Bettelheim (2020); Walter Benjamin (2009); Mariza Mendes (2000); and Nelly Novaes Coelho (2012), essentially. To understand the process of appropriation and adaptation, we have searched at the works of Thaïs Flores Nogueira Diniz (1998) (2011), Julie Sanders (2006), and Linda Hutcheon (2013), among other authors. Finally, readings of the writings by Jacques Derrida (2001) (2005) have been essential for our analysis of deconstruction in Maleficent. This research has raised important questions for women’s studies throughout history and about the importance of deconstructing patriarchal discourses, for a progressive equality of rights among genders.