An analysis of selected variants and adaptations of Carlo Collodi’s ‘Le avventure di Pinocchio: storia di un burattino’

Abstract

This study is an analysis of a well known and popular theme, Carlo Collodi’s Le Avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un burattino (1883). Collodi’s Pinocchio (1883) may be considered as a tale that became popular throughout different times and cultures. I chose this narrative in particular, due to my academic formation in Italian Studies. The analysis of this study is in light of my work on previous studies that focus on literary tradition and popular culture. This Italian narrative is popular amongst both young and adult readers, and has inspired authors and producers to recreate and adapt the story according to the target audience of their time. Particular motifs and themes such as the growing nose of Pinocchio, the Blue Haired Fairy, and the cricket are what make Pinocchio a popular tale amongst different cultures. The many variants of Pinocchio (1883) attest to its popularity, and I have selected the following four variants as part of my analysis. Ernest Rhys’ Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet (1944), Oscar Bruno’s Pinocchio e il cavaliere di Melk (2004), Robert Coover’s Pinocchio in Venice (1992), and Walt Disney’s Pinocchio (1940). These four variants fall between the period of 1944-2004, varying in language from Italian to English and also in medium from text to screen. These variants were chosen above other many variants of Pinocchio, being as each includes a handful of recognizable motifs that resonate the ones of the original text. These variants tend to uncover these motifs across different forms of media, adapted to suit the intended target audience or reader In this analysis I intend to observe the kinds of changes that are applied to the variants and adaptations that were created in different times and different cultures. Culture and time may be considered as two fundamental properties that give other cultures the possibility to experience and enjoy foreign narratives. This notion is possible through the adoption and adaptation of the function of the narrative, characters, motifs and themes from the original text. I will also attest the idea that the reader is an important element in the making of an adaptation, being that the reader reacts to a narrative by expecting certain motifs through recognizable but evolving features such as the representation of the Blue Haired Fairy. These four variants and adaptations were specifically selected as a representation of Roman Jakobson’s three types of translation. According to Jakobson there are three types of translation ‘Intralingual [...], Interlingual [...], and Intersemiotic [...]’ (1971: 261). The analysis will partly build on translation as a form of adaptation of language and narrative. […]