“Ela não era ninguém especial”: representações do feminino em graphic novels de Alan Moore

Abstract

Comics, as a mass media, are a space of social representation. The notion of femininity and of beauty which are represented in comics changes depending on when they are represented. However, they are consistently done through the male gaze, from a projection of what the male gaze considers to be femininity. Taking this into consideration, the present dissertation seeks to analyze how the feminine is represented in works written by British author Alan Moore. The comic books were divided into three phases: the British phase, which encompasses The ballad of Halo Jones (1984-198) and V for Vendetta (1982-1983;1988); the mainstream US phase, with Watchmen (1986-1987) and Batman: the killing joke (1988); and, lastly, the non-mainstream US phase, which encompasses Promethea (1999-2005) and Lost Girls (2006). The gender analysis will be carried out, primarily, through Butler’s concept of “gender performativity”, which brings that gender is not something intrinsic to the human being, but something built through the repletion of acts and ideas.