O cinema esculpido na literatura? : a circulação multimodal do texto literário e sua recepção na díade Pygmalion/MyFair Lady por alunos de licenciatura em Letras-Inglês

Abstract

This research analyzes the interface literature/cinema in the play Pygmalion (1914), by George Bernard Shaw, and in its cinematographic adaptation My Fair Lady (1964), by George Cukor, as well as the reception of this interface by students of Letras (language teaching education) at the State University of Maringá, Paraná (Brazil), aiming at verifying the existing relations among literature, classroom and multimedia resources. There are two justifications for the study: the analysis of that interface and its relation with the teaching of literature, and the lack of researches related to this issue, which is very current due to technology insertion in education sectors and new lecture practices. Taking this into consideration, the study is based on theoretical concepts of intersemiotic translation, Sociology of Reading and Aesthetic Response Theory (Wolfgang Iser), in order to understand theoretically and methodologically the process of transferring a literary to a cinematographic language and discuss the ways of circulation and reception of literature in a different media through ethnographic research, observing in which way this influences readers formation and pedagogic practices in English. It was verified that My Fair Lady, in spite of its non-critical approach to conventional gender relations, was a successful production to the new semiotic medium towards which it was transferred to: the cinema. In addition to that, it could be observed that the students were not exactly 'disappointed' with the circulation of Pygmalion in the cinematographic media. Although they have recognized the romantic ending as a negative aspect, owing to the changes it caused in Shaw's satirical comedy, there was a high acceptance of that material, mainly because of its images. Finally, the students also presented a positive reception concerning the utilization of multimedia resources in classroom as a tool for learning and stimulating reading. The results of this study involve the importance of professors' mediation in language teaching education to the development of a critical reading in relation to new technologies in classroom and new reading practices, in order to promote not only the intercommunication between semiotic media and arts, but, mainly, among aesthetic, literary and cultural experiences.