O estereótipo problematizado em orange is the new black: colonialismo, intermidialidade e políticas da metaficção

Abstract

The process of colonization is anchored in the delegitimization of the colonized as an individual being. In this regard, the inferiorization of the colonized caused by the use of stereotypes (as it acts directly on the construction of otherness and on the resulting relations of that process) is the main tool of the colonizer (Bhabha, 1998). By assigning a fixed block of characteristics to a person or a group of people, stereotype erases individuality, delegitimizes and dehumanizes the stereotyped, silencing their voice. The potential of art to contribute to the reinforcement of stereotypes (and thus, to the maintenance of the ruling power) is connected to the tentative representation of "truth" by fiction through realism, sold as a mirror to the world without any important opposition until the second half of the 20th century, when the correspondence between truth and realism started to be bluntly questioned (Certeau, 1998; Barthes, 2004, 2011; Genette, 2015). In the production of aesthetic texts, the use of metalinguistic and intermedial artifices to lay bare the narrative procedures with a critical distance provided, mainly, by irony (Hutcheon, 1995), gained force. Therefore, it is possible to say that the Netflix TV series Orange Is the New Black, produced between 2013 and 2019, is both product of the social and artistic momentum as it is vanguard and an inspiration for other works. Diverging from the exploitation genre, so common in the fictional pieces about incarcerated women, the show focalizes on the inter and intrapersonal relations that permeate the lives of those women, addressing matters of race, gender, mental issues, sexual orientation, privileges (or the lack thereof), without avoiding stereotypes, but confronting them instead. This study aims to analyze how stereotypes are presented and confronted in Orange, focusing on two events (Judy King’s auction and the game Fantasy Inmate) and two characters (Piper Chapman and Poussey Washington). The analysis is the final step of a process that includes the theoretical contextualization of the stereotype concept, metafiction and intermediality, at first, and the problematization of stereotype (in relation to metafiction and intermediality) later. The research methodology included reading and systematizing theoretical-critical material about our object (focusing on the authors we consider more relevant to our research), including audiovisual material, as well as debates in the classroom about theory of narrative, metafiction and audiovisual resources. The study acknowledges that Orange Is the New Black confronts stereotypes mainly through metafiction and intermediality, with irony as an effect in both cases.