스펙터클 스토리텔링―<브리저튼>의 각색을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper examines the spectacle in Bridgerton in the Netflix original period drama is a storytelling device where everything is visually told. Shonda Rhimes and Chris Van Dusen’s Bridgerton is the adaptation of Julia Quinn’s bestselling romance, The Duke and I. Through the lens of ‘color-blind casting,’ Bridgerton drastically modifies the original 19th-century English Regency set into a multiracial society governed by a Black queen. The ‘spectacle’, considered a key element in Bridgerton’s success, goes beyond mere visual appeal. According to Debord, it serves as a gadget that reveals everything “as it is”. In the light of Linda Hutcheon’s theory of adaptation, moreover, it can be viewed as a ‘revenge of the story.’ The spectacle in Bridgerton utilities a narrative tactic to visualize the power. At the center of this spectacle are the Black queen and the duke, who divulge the performativity and obscenity of patriarchal power. The spectacle of lavish costumes those female characters are wearing in the movie conjure up the economic bondage of women in a patriarchal society, normalizing the female passivity. It further demonstrates that Lady Whistledown whose pseudonym is Penelope, anonymous writer of the gossip journal, “the ton”, constantly shows how gossip exposes hidden patriarchal power and empowers marginalized women with her given authority to speak to the potential readers.