Jane Austen in the 1940 silver screen: screwball comedy, translation and manipulation.

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813, by the English author Jane Austen, to the eponymous film directed by Robert Z. Leonard in 1940. In her work, Austen presents a love story, however it contains a complex narrative structure which reveals and provokes the questioning of sociopolitical problems of Edwardian England. Such questions stablish a dialogue with contemporary issues, such as values associated with social class, and the role of women in society. Nevertheless, it is considered that by being made into a film in the Hollywood cinema of the 1940s, the film narrative rewrites and projects another image of Austen and, therefore, of England. Consequently, erasing Austen’s criticism, and reinforcing a comic and romantic content. In this way, the following questions arose: what strategies were used in the adaptation and what are the consequences for Austen's work? As the main theoretical basis, it was used André Lefevere's (2007) concepts of translation as rewriting, and the studies of Patrick Cattrysse (1992), who conceives film adaptation as a type of translation. In addition, Wes D. Gehring’s (1983) studies about the film genre screwball comedy were used as well. The results confirm our hypothesis that the film narrative reinforces a romantic and comic content, as well as revealed that the film had a political function in its contexts of production and reception.