#QueenOfTheNation: multimodality and subversion in the construction of the power of the character Dilma Bolada

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how is the construction of the power of Dilma Bolada’s character  in her posts on Facebook.  For this, we supported us the on the theoretical proposal of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) in terms of compositional metafunction and we took into account the ways that make the textual tessitura, whether verbal or visual. In addition, we articulated these assumptions on the concept of subversion postulated by Maingueneau (2004).  This research has qualitative interpretative nature on a corpus of three posts made on the official Dilma Bolada’s character on Facebook, published and collected between April and May 2014.  Among  various publications during this period, we listed those whose theme revolved around the Game of Thrones series. We emphasize that these posts refer to two distinct constructs of images: the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and the referred television series, creating, through these images, the character Dilma Bolada. We evidenced in these publications the appreciation of the power of Dilma Bolada achieved by the use of strong and vibrant colors of their clothing, the center position, or by being close to the ideal plan, in addition to subversion of the universe of the Game of Thrones series, which provided characteristics of strength and sovereignty to the character. The investigation allowed us to conclude that the traces of visual composition, enhanced by subverting the context of  the President Dilma Rousseff and the Game of Thrones series, contributed to the construction of the power of  Dilma Bolada’s image character.