THE POSTERIOR ANTERIORITY: A DECONSTRUCTIONIST READING OF THE FILM ADAPTATIONS OF THE HOBBIT, BY PETER JACKSON

Abstract

In this work, we will investigate the oppositional relationship between anteriority and posteriority in the film adaptations of The Hobbit, by director Peter Jackson, in relation to the adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, by the same director, from a deconstructionist perspective. The live action adaptations of Tolkien's first book of fairy tales for the screen present elements that allow them to be studied according to Derrida's post-structuralist precepts, as they received several elements from the adaptations of The Lord of the Rings that did not exist in the literary adventure of Bilbo through Middle-earth, which results in an undecidability as to whether Bilbo's journey, in the cinema, is before or after Frodo's narrative. Thus, considering the above, this study brings together studies around deconstruction, such as Derrida (2005, 2014 and 2017) and Siscar (2013), and works on intersemiotic translation, such as Jakobson (1993), Lefevere (2007) and Stam (2006). Our corpus of analysis includes the three adaptations of The Hobbit franchise: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), and the three adaptations of The Lord of the Rings: The Society of Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). For this purpose, we will take into consideration, in the analysis, elements such as characters and narrative-imagery motifs, in order to elucidate the relationships between anteriority and posteriority in those productions under a deconstructionist approach.