Trade-Offs between literature and film: the relation between the characterization of the main character in “O Sobrado” and Netto perde sua alma

Abstract

The first part of this paper analyzes how the characterization of the main character from the book chapter “O Sobrado” relates to the representation of history in the remaining of the novel O Continente (1949), by Erico Verissimo, then the results are compared to an analogous investigation between the characterization of the main character and the representation of history in the novel Netto perde sua alma (1995), by Tabajara Ruas. In the second part of the paper, the same procedure is applied to the relevant film adaptations O Sobrado (1956) and Netto perde sua alma (2001). In the final section, this work presents an evaluation of some aesthetic potentials and constraints of the literary and filmic works taken into account, as well as their means of expression, in light of a cross-disciplinary approach, including tools from the domains of literature and film analysis. The study shows that there have been significant changes in the characterizations of Licurgo and Netto, both in the adaption of the books to the cinema and in the way the main characters were characterized differently in the two literary works, over a period of approximately half a century, with implications for the representation of the past found in these works, which, to a certain extent, suggests how they relate to some features that are characteristic of their time.