A mulher amarela no discurso ocidental em Mulan: tradição, exotismo e normalização

Abstract

Scientifically, Asian invisibility is a topic that has been little explored from a linguistic perspective, especially when linked to audiovisual media, but it is extremely relevant in the current academic landscape. In cinematic discourse, it is common (Foucault, 2010) for representations of Asian people to be linked to some type of stereotype created by oppressive discourses. Aware of this, the general objective of this master's research is to analyze how the Chinese character Mulan, a yellow woman, is discursivized in a Disney animation of the same name: Mulan (1998). The specific objectives, in turn, are: a) to investigate, in light of Foucauldian Discourse Studies, the conditions of possibility that allowed the production of discourses about yellow women in the animation Mulan (1998); b) to analyze how the intersectionalities between gender, racialization, and ethnic belonging are mobilized in the discourses that shape the character's subjectivation; c) to problematize the processes of stereotyping of the yellow woman portrayed, at the intersection between the narrative-discursive elements in the animation and the power relations present in society. In order to achieve these goals, I employ the archaeogenealogical method (Araújo, 2007; Foucault, 2010; Navarro, 2015) and adhere to the theoretical and methodological perspective of Foucauldian Discourse Studies (Navarro, 2011, 2020), a robust framework for analyzing how discourses are constituted in society and how they are (re)established at different times. This approach enters into dialogue with feminist theories and Asian feminism (Akotirene, 2018; Lugones, 2005; Lee; Shimabuko; Higa, 2018), which help to provide a deeper understanding of the intersectionality inherent in the categories of race and gender in the construction of representations of Asian women. The thesis defended in this research is that the audiovisuals of Mulan (1998) contribute to the construction and dissemination of stereotypical representations of the character Mulan, further reinforcing deep-rooted violent socio-historical dynamics. More than that, these representations reinforce and feed back into the power relations of socio-historical dynamics of violence, spreading prejudice and limiting the complex identity of the Asian community, of the yellow race, in its heterogeneity.