“I won’t be silenced” : transcriações da princesa Jasmine em “Aladdin”

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the productions “Aladdin” (1992), by Ron Clements and John Musker, and “Aladdin” (2019), by Guy Ritchie, made by Disney Studios, trying to understand the constructions of the Western look on the Eastern feminine through the comparative study of the character Jasmine proposed in each film. Both productions are adaptations of the tale “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”, which makes up the collection “The Thousand and One Nights”. Although based on a narrative of Arab origin, these films present themselves crossed by orientalist visions (SAID, 2020) that reflect power relations between different cultures. In addition, the works were done with almost three decades for each production and through different techniques, respectively, animation and live action, reflecting the dialogue between the films and the historical and sociocultural phenomena contemporary to them (STAM , 2006). The purpose of this study is to discuss the way in which pop culture and the western cinematic imagery create images of eastern peoples, especially the Middle East and their women. To investigate the construction of the character Jasmine, the method of film analysis was activated (VANOYE; GOLIOT-LÉTÉ, 2012), in which, observing elements of the audiovisual composition, we sought to understand the signs and their meanings, as well as the construction and /or breaking stereotypes (BOSI, 1992; HALL, 2016). The way Jasmine is constructed in each filmic work reflects important transformations that mark its production contexts, such as the Gulf War (1990-1991), the emergence of the Arab Spring (2010) and the growing discussion, promoted by the recent advances of the feminists movements, on the objectification and stereotyping of women. In line with these transformations, a discursive-marketing repositioning of Disney Studios is perceived. However, the 2019 version still sports a look of exoticism and flattening of different cultures in an orientalist representation of the character and the Middle East. The relevance of this research is, therefore, to reflect on how pop culture can endorse (and sometimes break with) western hegemonic concepts (SAID, 2020) about eastern peoples.