A representação da identidade feminina da personagem Arlequina na construção dos quadrinhos da DC Comics

Abstract

The present research sets a study on the feminine representation of the character Harley Quinn in the making of the strips of the DC Comics, aiming at an analysis of the character’s identity constructions in the following graphic narratives: Batman: secret origins (2016), Harley Quinn: hot in the city (2017), Batman: Harley Quinn (2017), Harley Quinn: power outage (2018) as well as two other episodes of the original animation: Batman: the animated series (1992), in which the identity representations are verified and taken on by the character Harley Quinn. This study was undertaken based on theoretical-methodological postulates of the Applied Linguistics milieu (AL), from the language conception towards the problematization of social issues (PENNYCOOK, 2008; MOITA LOPES, 2006; RAJAGOPALAN, 2003), from the Social Theory of Language, setting a perspective of language as social practice. (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001; MEURER, 2011; RAMALHO, RESENDE, 2011) and from Social Psychology, for the sake of a comprehension of the identity constructions as well as the representations performed by the character Harley Quinn (MOSCOVICI, 2007; JODELET, 2019). The data subjected to the qualitative analysis were interpreted based on two analytical categories: (a) violence and (b) sexuality. The results highlight that the character Harley Quinn, known as a submissive one, is no longer occupying this position, bearing in mind that in the examined graphic novels she takes on new representativities as those of Doctor Quinzel’s and Harley Quinn’s, as well as that of the leading figure and antiheroine. Besides, Harley Quinn also represents herself as an empowered feminine character, since she subverts the place of power and masculine domination in the narrative, and also breaks with the heteronormative pattern performing bisexuality and making way to the feminine sorority.