Entre a ousadia e a perversidade: um estudo acerca dos discursos de gênero em Instinto Selvagem

Abstract

This article explains the construction of the feminine based on the character Catherine Tramell, protagonist of the film Basic Instinct (1992), and its intertwining with the socio-historical context of the United States in the 1990s. The objective is to analyze the development Catherine and her relations with the other characters, to articulate it with the positions of two movements active in the country: Feminism and Backlash. It is a qualitative approach, carried out through Discourse Analysis from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin (1988, 2011), mainly regarding the socio-ideological function of discourse, and Dominique Maingueneau (2008a, 2008b) for the notions of scenography and ethos. In the approximations between Gender and Cinema, the article is based on the arguments of the authors Judith Butler (2001, 2010), Ana Mery De Carli (2009) and Susan Faludi (2001). As a result, it was noticed that the speeches promoted by Backlash and feminist claims manifested tensions and ambiguities in the structuring of the protagonist of Basic Instinct, transforming the film into an arena in which contradictory interpretations are aligned with the relations between subversion and villainy expressed by Catherine Tramell.