A comparative analysis of text worlds’ elements in the literary tale “Cinderella” by Charles Perrault (translated into Russian) and its screenplay by Yevgeny Schwartz

Abstract

Formal comparison of literary texts often seems difficult due to hidden meanings, allegories, and the authorial style. As a solution to this problem, linguists propose the Text World Theory (TWT), according to which each text consists of text-world elements (characters, time, and place of action) and changes within them that cause switching from one text world (TW) to another. TWT is well suited for studying versions of a single plot, as it formalizes the narrative structure of the text. This study presents a comparative analysis of the elements of text worlds in Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper”, translated into Russian by Tamara Gabbe, and the film script Cinderella by Yevgeny Schwartz, based on Perrault’s fairy tale. To better understand differences in the elements of TWs in a literary tale and its screen adaptation, the two texts were annotated using an XML markup. For analysis, such elements of text worlds as characters and markers of place were automatically extracted. Intermediate results show that, although the elements of the text worlds in both texts are largely similar, there are marked differences in the ranged frequency of their occurrence and elements that surround them. The differences are explained by the fact that Perrault’s literary fairy tale belongs to the epic genre, and Schwartz’s film script — to the drama, as well as the artistic style and individual perception of the story by the two authors. The genre features require Schwartz to provide more detail on characters and locations. The analysis shows that he seeks to preserve and even expand the romantic presentation of Perrault’s plot, even taking certain risks (e. g., calling the fairy with a religious, Christian naming: “godmother”). At the same time, the shift in focus from the prince to the king father in the script indicates a deeper psychologism. It is planned to expand the research by adding new literary works to the corpus. This article was presented as a paper at the 8th Research Conference "Conference on Text Interpretation: Data Analysis in the Social Sciences and Humanities" (17 July 2022, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tyumen).