Goodnight, Maleficent: forced to sleep and mutilated awakening

ABSTRACT

This article aims to analyze the sexual violence representation focusing on the character Maleficent, in the homonymous live action produced by Disney (2014). Bakhtin’s philosophy of language is the basis for reflection, focusing on the conceptions of dialogue, subject, ideology and utterance. From the material constitution of the film (formed by the verbal, the vocal and the visual in an integrated way), the ideologies expressed in the enunciative architecture are considered, constituted by the author-creator’s project of saying, which semiotizes, with a given finish, the patriarchal social voice, via the construction of a sexist relationship, revealed by an act of sexual violence against women. This article is based on the dialectical-dialogical method for the analysis of the filmic work, performed in comparison with Sleeping Beauty (Grimm, 1812), Sleeping Beauty in the Woods (Perrault, 1697) and Sun, Moon and Talia (Basile, 1634). The reflection on how an aesthetic statement starts from the social ground and turns to it, in a responsive and ethical way, justifies the study undertaken.

Keywords:
Maleficent; sexual violence; fairy tales; Bakhtin circle