“Those with power... fear us! those without power... follow us!”: as relações de poder, divisão de classes e resistência no mundo de Code Geass (2006)

Abstract

In the establishment of socio-economic hierarchies, the contemporary capitalist world is basically divided into two groups, the rich and the poor, so these social classes fight for their interests, the richest to remain in power, and the workers to achieve equality in the midst of this contradiction. It is therefore essential to investigate how the current narrative addresses Marxist themes, in relation to the anime Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (2006) by creator Ichirō Ōkouchi and director Gorō Taniguchi. Given this, the power relations between the Empire of Britannia and Area Eleven and its factions reveal an interesting object of investigation, since in the anime, the Empire of Britannia, with its wealth and military power, decimated the Japanese in a massacre, enslaving them and leaving them isolated in what was then known as Area Eleven, which remains in poverty and is raped by the empire's soldiers. As a result, the student Lelouch has a special power called Geass, which he uses to change this relationship of domination and oppression, and embarks on a journey in an attempt to overthrow the empire. According to this opinion, this research seeks to answer the following question: how are power relations established, maintained and confronted in Area Eleven of the anime Code Geass (2006)? To answer this question, we set ourselves the general objective of analyzing how power relations are established, maintained and confronted in Area Eleven of the anime Code Geass (2006). In order to achieve this general objective, the following specific objectives were set: (1) to discuss the theoretical assumptions of Marxist Studies; (2) to characterize the Empire of Britannia as the dominant class and Area 11 as the dominated class, highlighting the aspects that underpin the power relations between them; (3) to identify how power relations are established and maintained by the division of classes by the Empire of Britannia and (4) to understand the ways in which Area 11 confronts the Empire of Britannia through class struggle. In terms of methodology, the research was qualitative, exploratory and bibliographical, based on authors such as Marx e Engels (2012), Tyson (2006), Lessa e Tonet (2011), and many others. The results show that Britannia's empire is characterized by ideological domination and total control of the means of production, while Area 11 is subjugated by its economic dependence and the exploitation and oppression it suffers day after day. The power relations show that the status quo is established and maintained by oppression, alienation and ideology, and the way that the elevens resist this domination is by awakening class consciousness to seek liberation and take possession of the means of production in Britannia's possession.