Abstract

This research intends to have a main objective, which is to identify and analyze dualities, either related to actions or to behaviors in dual/parallel universes in two films that deal with the same theme. Both films, Barbie (2023) and Russian Dolls (2005), count with what we call here “duoverse protagonists” who try to find themselves in their own “dual universes”, representing dualities. Barbie, the doll, is experiencing a new life, alive, finding out that her world among humans is not the same as her perfect environment as a doll, with Ken. Her journey is a way of self-discovery to find out who she is in live action, finally deciding to become human living in the “real” world, even not knowing exactly the meaning of this world. The second film of the corpus, Russian Dolls, also deals with dolls as a metaphor to imply that women have two or three layers that make it difficult to be explained by the protagonist, Xavier, who is always between his dual universe, as a ghostwriter, imagining a script, and as himself, trying to find out who he really is and what he really wants to find in a companion for life. Both scripts defy “indexical spectators”, who have to accept the challenges of having either a live Barbie or a Barbie in Barbieland, in the first film, and to follow Xavier´s doubts in and out of his imaginary world in which he fights to find a feasible way to portray a couple in love.