The fantastic in Coraline: a semiotic analysis

• Grant number: 10/05953-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2010
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Jean Cristtus Portela
• Grantee: Aline Aparecida dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The English writer Neil Gaiman has a varied background in various genres of literature and comics. His novel Coraline (2002) was considered a bestseller and received numerous adaptations, including versions for the comics (U.S., 2008, illustrated by P. Craig Russelle) and for a musical off Broadway (USA, 2009). The object of analysis chosen for this research was the adaptation of Coraline for film, Coraline (U.S., 2009), stop motion animation directed by Henry Selick. In the eyes of the general public the film stands out for being an engaging animation. Under a closer look, Coraline becomes a valuable object of study that incorporated the technique of stop motion at the same time that modernized the fantastic genre, usually directed to children and youth, but in that case, reaches many audiences.The objective of this research is to analyze the animation based on semiotic theory of origin greimasian, focusing on the narrative that constitutes the fantastic genre in order to infer the regularities of gender and the specifics of audiovisual product.