Abstract

GUTIERREZ DELGADO, Ruth. The “frontier knight” in The Mandalorian (Disney + 20192020). Revista de Comunicación [online]. 2022, vol.21, n.1, pp.215-230.  Epub Apr 16, 2022. ISSN 1684-0933.  http://dx.doi.org/10.26441/rc21.1-2022-a11.

In this article, I propose the concept of the frontier knight to define the heroic prototype that arises from the conversion of two concomitant narrative genres: the space-western and the epic or heroic fantasy. This concept is provided after the re-visitation of the frontier hero in the series The Mandalorian (Disney +, 2019-2020), according to some features of the medieval knight-errant concept. Given its ascription to the subgenus of space-western, the frontier hero archetype receives its outlaw status; However, thanks to the elements of epic fantasy that he inherits from his belonging to the Star Wars universe, the hero undergoes a gradual transformation in the unfolding of his mission that brings him closer to the knight errant. For this reason, the objective of this article is twofold: on the one hand, to categorize that heroic archetype that arose from the combination of two genres in narratives presents similarities through the figure of the outsider as the protagonist. On the other hand, for this purpose, a mixed methodology between semiotics and hermeneutics is explored in which the concepts of metaphorical displacement and relationship by similarity are applied.

Keywords : hero; space-western; heroic fantasy; The Mandalorian; metaphorical displacement; “frontier knight”.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )