The Blending of Tradition and Modernity: Analyses of Female’s Image of Disney Princess from 2010 to 2015

• Main Authors: WU, SHUANG, 吳雙
• Other Authors: Dr. LIN, WEN LING
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/14359554726629045393

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 戲劇創作與應用學系碩士班 === 105 === Disney princesses, since the first princess, “Snow White,” came into being in 1937, has gone through various transformations in the past three-quarters century, which may reflect a certain female’s images from different generations. This study focuses on three works with princesses as leading characters, which were released by Walt Disney Animation Studio from 2010 to 2015, including “Tangled” in 2010, “Brave” in 2012 and also ”Frozen” in 2013. I examine the following three questions that are concerned with the four “new” princesses: First, how are the images of these new princesses different from those princesses of the earlier stages? How are these images shaped through narratives and character relationships? Secondly, how do the new princesses display woman power and to what degree could they break through the patriarchal system? Finally, how are the witches and the mothers of the princesses dramatized? What lies behind their conflicting relations with the princesses? To answer those questions, I will first use theory of feminism to analyze woman power and femininity as demonstrated by the princesses, and to further disclose the patriarchy embedded in their seemingly new independent image. Then, I will adopt film critic Laura Mulvey’s concepts of “visual pleasure” and “narcissistic pleasure” to probe the relationship between the body representation of those new princesses and the psychological mechanism of the viewers. Second, I will investigate the gender division in space, and what it means for the princesses to leave the castle or home. Finally, I explore the history of witches in the west and their transformation from fairy-tales to these three animated films. I apply psychological study of fairy-tales to discuss the features and symbolic meanings of witches and mother characters, whose interaction with princesses play an important part. Keyword: Disney princess, female image, gender and space, Tangled, Brave, Frozen