RICHARD SOMERS’S AMBIVALENCE AND ITS TRANSLATION ONTO SCREEN

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the rewriting of the protagonist Richard Somers of the autobiographical novel Kangaroo (1923), by the British writer D. H. Lawrence to the cinema by the director Tim Burstall, in his 1986 homonymous film.  In the novel, Lawrence transposes through the character an ambivalent perception of his political ideologies, sometimes showing himself to be either for and against them. Therefore, this research focused on a comparative analysis of Lawrence’s novel and Burstall's adaptation, highlighting some cinematographic strategies used by the director to translate the political ambiguity of the aforementioned character in his adaptation. As a result, we have concluded that the character was adapted as a hesitant individual in stablishing himself firmly in the possible political spectrum, portrayed by constant questionings, judgements or ridicule of his philosophies and ideas by other characters. To do so, we have used Cattrysse (1992) and Lefevere (2007) as theoretical framework to analyze translation as a type of rewriting, and the concepts of cinematographic composition by Martin (1955) and Aumont et al. (1995).