Uma história arturiana na era dos estúdios: representações de gênero no filme “Os cavaleiros da távola redonda” (1953)

Abstract

This dissertation presents the final results of the research “An Arthurian story in the era of studios: gender representations in the film the knights of the round table”. The objective of this study was to identify the main characteristics of the representations and discourses that Cinema produced in the mid-twentieth century from the Arthurian stories and how they relate to social, political and cultural aspects of this contemporary period. In this sense, we focus on the characters present in the film “Os Cavaleiros da Távola Redonda” (Knights of the Round Table, 1953, Richard Thorpe) and the relationship they have with their historical context from a gender perspective, as conceptualized by historian Joan Scott. We employ the ideas of representations and discourses and an examination of the filmic source concerned with its aesthetic and script elements. Our conclusion is that such cinematographic production dialogues with elements of political, sexual and gender conservatism. This is because it presents notions of masculine and feminine that are in line with this perspective, since, among other things, it makes an apology for marriage, vehemently condemns women's sexual freedom and places strength and union as masculine attributes. Thus, such cinematographic work uses a medieval theme to reproduce social, political and, above all, conservative gender precepts present in certain sectors of society of its time during the 1950s.