VIAGEM AO CENTRO DO POLISSISTEMA: O PAPEL DAS ADAPTAÇÕES CINEMATOGRÁFICAS NA DINÂMICA DE SISTEMAS LITERÁRIOS E CULTURAIS

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting and discussing the first findings of a
research project that employs Itamar Even-Zohar’s Polysystem Theory (1978; 2010) in
mapping some of the contributions cinema industry has brought to the Brazilian literary
system. Focusing on the editorial boom and renewal of J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy The
Lord of the Rings (1954) brought about by Peter Jackson’s homonymous film versions
(2001-2003), the research intends to demonstrate that adaptations of literary works to
the screen may renew and enrich the original text, rearrange its role and position
within both source and target literary systems by introducing it to new audiences,
adapting it to new readers, performing that which Walter Benjamin (2000) conceived as
translation’s major role: to grant the original text “afterlife”.