PROPPIAN ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF WOMAN HERO IN STAR WARS NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

Year 2020, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 669 - 696, 28.03.2020

Işıl Tombul

https://doi.org/10.19145/e-gifder.555811

Abstract

Since 1977, Star Wars is a series of films that have a fascinating audience and fandom in the history of cinema. Star Wars films have a sci-fi and westernian genre character and appeal to the male world in both narratives and audiences in general. Generally the male-dominated image of the male protagonists' aesthetic duels in a story based on power and force is broken in 2015 with Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, after Disney bought Star Wars. In addition to the global paradigm shift in gender roles, Disney's desire to include the female fan base into the market in this breakdown is also there. In the modern-popular culture structure, a woman phenomene who is a hero with masculine codes emerges. In the Star Wars series important woman characters are always presented, but not as heroic. The aim of this study is to look at the construction of the woman hero (Rey) through the film The Force Awakens, which is the first woman in the last trilogy. The basic story of the film series fits the scheme of Vladimir Propp's Russian tales. Therefore, as it was looked at the construction here, the narrative structure was analyzed by Propp's structural analysis method and how the woman hero was built within the masculine language. In the construction of masculine language, the image of impeccable masculinity created by Hollywood and popular culture is encountered while the woman is consumed as a supporter of masculinity in this created capitalist language. The importance of Propp's structural method from the point of study is due to the analysis of the structures within the narrative. This approach allows us to analyze the position of women in the narrative and the gender problem through the corpus examined. It has been seen that Rey's heroism exists to strengthen the heroism of men, not her own womanhood.

Keywords

Star Wars, Narration, Gender, Woman, Propp

STAR WARS ANLATI YAPISINDA KADIN KAHRAMAN İNŞASININ PROPPYEN ANALİZİ

Abstract

Star Wars (Yıldız Savaşları), 1977'den beri sinema tarihinde önemli bir hayran kitlesi ve hayran kültürü olan bir film serisidir. Star Wars filmleri bilimkurgu ve westernik özellikler taşımasından dolayı gerek anlatıda gerekse izleyici kitlesinde genel olarak erkek dünyaya hitap etmektedir. Güç ve iktidar üzerine kurulu bir hikâye yapısı içerisinde genellikle erkek kahramanların estetik düellolarının izlendiği erkek egemen görüntü, Disney'in Star Wars'u satın almasından sonra Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (Güç Uyanıyor) filmi ile 2015'te kırılmıştır. Bu kırılmada, cinsiyet rollerindeki küresel paradigma değişiminin yanı sıra Disney'in kadın hayran kitlesini de pazara dahil etme isteği vardır. Modern-popüler kültür yapısı içinde eril kodlarla kahraman olan bir kadın fenomen karşımıza çıkar. Star Wars serilerinde önemli kadın karakterler her zaman olsa da başrolde kahraman olarak sunulmamıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, son üçlemede yer alan ve ilk kez bir kadın karakterin öne çıktığı The Force Awakens (Güç Uyanıyor) filmi üzerinden kadın kahramanın (Rey) inşasına bakmaktır. Film serilerinin temel hikâyesi Vladimir Propp'un Rus masallarına uyguladığı şemaya uymaktadır. Bu nedenle buradaki inşaya bakılırken anlatı yapısı Propp'un yapısal çözümleme yöntemiyle incelenmiş ve kadın kahramanın eril dil içinde nasıl inşa edildiğine bakılmıştır. Eril dilin inşasında Hollywood'un ve popüler kültürün yarattığı kusursuz erkeklik imgesi karşımıza çıkarken kadın da bu yaratılan kapitalist dil içinde erilliği destekleyici olarak tüketilmektedir. Propp'un yapısal yönteminin çalışma açısından önemi, anlatı içindeki yapıları çözümlemesinden kaynaklanmaktadır. Bu yaklaşım, bize kadının anlatı içindeki konumu daha net verirken diğer yandan toplumsal cinsiyet sorununa bakışın, incelenen film yani bütünce aracılığıyla güncellenmesini de sağlamaktadır. Görülmüştür ki Rey'in kahramanlığı kendi kadınlığını değil, erkeklerin kahramanlığını güçlendirmek için vardır.

Keywords

Star Wars, toplumsal cinsiyet, kadın, anlatı, Propp

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