Heroínas y malvadas: la construcción de la imagen femenina en Penny Dreadfull (2014-2016), de John Logan

Abstract

The '50s greeted cinema as the king of entertainment. Also, throughout the last century, many voices rose up predicting his death. However, far from disappearing, the screens have multiplied exponentially: cinema, television, smart phones and tablets produce and re-produce the reality that surrounds us. Screens of all kinds: liquid crystal, flat, tactile, graphic, small and giant.It is the height of the "global screen", as Lipovetsky and Serroy (2009) say. We are undoubtedly immersed in the world of the image.

Speed, change and fragmentation characterize our time. Satisfying the demand of the avid consumer of entertainment products has turned into the biggest challenge of the present.

In this way, the series produced for television and the various streaming systems strive to become the undisputed emperors. We can affirm then, without fear of making mistakes, that the series are to the media spectator what once the cinema of the golden age was to its audience. In this way, actors, producers and film directors have been tempted to join this field that is in full expansion. From the Internet to the various platforms -Netflix, Qubit TV and the native Cine.ar, among others- through channels with premium packages, the offer is multiplied presenting us with products for the most demanding palates.

We are witnessing a time of great changes: the feminist movements that help to reconsider the role of women, as well as the relations between the sexes in the past and the present, projecting them into the future. Globalization expands, through communications, the scope of these changes to all sectors of the planet; and, given the profusion of television products, it is not surprising that all these transformations are reflected in the media.

Series, as well as other productions, are not left out. Each and every one of them presents themes that are disturbing: the relations between the sexes, the independence of the woman, the bodies -trans, cyber, post human-, to name but a few, nourish the different stories.

This work aims to analyze the construction of the female image in the television series: Penny Dreadfull (2014-2016), created by John Logan. This American-British co-production has explored vampirism, the demonic, lycanthropy, artificial life and eternal youth. The first season of the series goes about the search for Mina, the missing daughter of Sir Malcom Murray. For this he will count on Vanessa Ives’ help, childhood friend of his offspring.

Aided by Ethan Chandler, the faithful African servant Sembene, and Victor Frankenstein.

The latter will give life -artificial- to a monstrous progeny: Proteus, of a short life; Caliban, who craving for love will demand a companion; and Lily -a luck of Lilith redived? -. The third season will have the presence of Dracula, who will try to crown Vanessa as the Mother of all evils. In this way, heroines and evil women give life to unsettling females.

We are interested in analyzing the various female roles that embody a polarized balance of heroines and evil. We propose to walk the path they travel to reflect on their characteristics, how the character is constructed or deconstructed to find out whether the heroine and the evil one coexist within the same character or they are different characters. Above all, whether the vision about women as it appears on the series corresponds to that of the Victorian era in which the story is set, or it reflects elements of our present seen from a distance. It is like this that we are supposed to read our present from said series production.