FLEABAG AND BLANCHE: HOW MEDIA DEVICES INTERFERE IN THE CHARACTER-VIEWER RELATIONSHIP

Natália Fernanda Silveira da Pureza

doi:10.34019/1983-8379.2025.v18.49672

Authors

Natália Fernanda Silveira da Pureza UFRGS https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6845-5422

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34019/1983-8379.2025.v18.49672

Keywords:

adaptation, Blanche Dubois, Fleabag, intermediality, media devices

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the relationship between two characters from stories presented in different media: the unnamed woman from the limited series Fleabag (Waller-Bridge, 2016-2019) and Blanche, the main character from the play A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams, 1947). Both works introduce as main characters women who experience difficulties navigating their lives through social expectations and norms, trauma, and sexuality, with their respective sisters and brothers-in-law playing important roles in their storylines. The similarities between the play and the TV show suggest that they might be read as adaptations of one another, even though the creator of Fleabag has not made such a claim. Having established the connection between these two texts, this article attempts to understand how the different devices of each medium (Rajewski, 2010) might influence the public’s perception of these characters. The claim is that the main character of Fleabag, due to the serialization of a TV show narrative (Mittel, 2015), can establish a deeper relationship with her viewer, despite the similarities between her story and that of Blanche.

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Author Biography

Natália Fernanda Silveira da Pureza, UFRGS

Mestranda em Letras pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul e graduada em Licenciatura em Letras Português-Inglês pela mesma universidade.

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