Don Quixote in Brazil: a century of adaptations for children and youth

Abstract

Research conducted during the attainment of the author's master's degree analyzed the presentation, authors, and illustrators of a corpus of thirteen adaptations of Miguel Cervantes' universal classic Don Quixote de La Mancha for child and young readers. It was motivated, in part, by the work's significant expansion in the Brazilian market and its systematic, progressive adoption, in various versions and formats, by institutions that train readers, such as schools and libraries. The analysis drew on the adaptations' linguistic-discursive specificities to focus on variations in the presentation of the protagonist, Don Quixote, in particular, in terms of their exploration of his madness as a trait capable of inspiring interest in children and youth.Given the number of adaptations that constitute the corpus and their frequent supplementation with newer versions, formats, and dissemination techniques, as well as their diverse, innovative writing strategies, further research is proposed to expand and enrich the analysis of the adaptors' perceptions of their young readers and of the readers of such adaptations published from 1910 to present and thus contribute to the literature on reading in Brazil, child and young readers, and the adaptation process. The objective of the proposed research is to enhance our understanding of the process of transforming this classical work from one culture to another and adapting and reconceiving it to meet the varied interests and skills of new audiences. Accordingly, the next stage will review and analyze additional facets of the adaptation process, such as the selection, condensing, and supplementing of the original text. The study will also examine lexical revisions, including text simplification and updating and adaption of the story with a view to producing such effects as humor and desacralization, including even the subversion of Cervantes' meanings by exercising a lesser or greater autonomy over his original work. The effects of homology between text and image, particularly in the most current adaptations, will also be considered. In addition, the investigator intends to establish a minimum corpus of adaptations for Spanish children and youth, within the framework of BEPE, to enhance identification of specificities particular to Brazil. To this end, the primary source, Sérgio Molina (2007, 2008), will be compared with respective adaptations, which will also be compared. This evaluation will draw on the concepts of French Discourse Analysis in regard to the linguistic-historical coercions that affect the production and appropriation of cultural history and texts with respect to the analysis of permanence and variation of representations and reading practices and those of specific studies devoted to the adaptation of classical works. (AU)