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Quando le margherite e le violette profumano di camelie / Confronto strutturale tra tre opere: il romanzo La Signora dalle Camelie, l'opera teatrale La Signora delle Camelie ed il libretto La Traviata

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Author

  • Evelina Andersson

Summary, in English

This paper deals with a structural comparison between three works: the novel The Lady of the Camellias (1848, Alexandre Dumas, fils), the play The Lady of the Camellias (1852, Alexandre Dumas, fils) and the libretto La Traviata (1853, Francesco Maria Piave and Giuseppe Verdi). It is well known that the libretto is based on the Dumas work. Dumas play, in its turn, is based on the novel. My aim was to investigate how the information is structured in each work and also how much and what kind of information is preserved while passing from one work to another. Then I analyzed and categorized the main examples of the transformations found. For the analysis I was inspired from the work Palimpsests by Gérard Genette (1997), but I categorized the different phenomena in my own way by dividing them into four types: excisions, reductions or simplifications, amplifications and dislocations. I also reflected on what kind of effect the different transformations may have on the reader. The aspects taken into consideration were: characters, places, time and themes discussed. As a result I found out that in spite of the fact that the play and the libretto appear as shortened versions compared to the novel, there are scenes and themes in them whose importance is actually emphasized. Another significant change concerns the morality. While the novel contains a lot of it, it is reduced in the play, and almost absent in the libretto where it has been replaced by the motto Carpe diem, an encouragement to enjoy life while you are still able to.

Department/s

Publishing year

2011

Language

Italian

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Supervisor

  • Carla Cariboni Killander (Lecturer in italian and french)