ABSTRACT
In this paper, an expanded version of the visual social actor network (van Leeuwen 2008van LEEUWEN, T. 2008. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.) is suggested in integration with the classification of fields proposed by Martin (1992MARTIN, J. R. 1992. English text: systems and structure. Philadelphia/Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.). In the context of multimodal critical discourse analysis, such network has provided a template for the discussion of the data aiming to reveal and interrogate the construal of women’s agency in the introductory part of the first film Sex and the City (2008). Overall results place women’s actions mostly in the private sphere but also reveal instances of gender performativity (Butler 1990BUTLER, J. 1990. Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. London/New York: Routledge.) that question social norms for women mainly imposed by the media.
Keywords:
Visual social actor network; MCDA; women’s agency; performativity