Vidas secas : um estudo comparativo entre o romance de Graciliano Ramos e o filme de Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Abstract

This paper analyzes the novel Vidas Secas (1938), by Graciliano Ramos (1892–1953), and the film adaptation directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos (1928-2018), released in 1963. The study aimed to investigate how narrative, thematic, and aesthetic elements of the literary work are transposed into cinematic language, considering the specificities of each medium and the creative choices involved in the adaptation process. Initially, the work presents as its theoretical basis adaptation studies, such as those by Linda Hutcheon (2011), Robert Stam (2006), and Hattnher (2010), which problematize the notion of fidelity and defend adaptation as na interpretative, intertextual, and intermedial process. From these contributions, it is understood that adaptation should not be evaluated solely by the criterion of fidelity to the source text, but as an autonomous form of artistic recreation, capable of producing new meanings from the dialogue between different sign systems. Finally, the comparative analysis between the novel and the film shows that the cinematic adaptation preserves the spirit of the literary work by translating into images the aridity of the backlands, the precariousness of the lives of the migrants, and the social oppression suffered by the characters. Resources such as the use of silence, natural light, static framing, and naturalistic acting function as cinematic strategies that re-signify the literary narrative without emptying its social and human content.