On Intersemiotic Shift in Jungle Book: From Paper to Screen

ABSTRACT

Translation theorists, see “translation as an active reconstitution of a foreign text mediated by irreducible linguistic, discursive and ideological differences of the target language culture.” Children's literature requires essential adjustments according to the receiving culture audience. Taking the connotation of adaptation as intersemiotic translation into account, the study centers on the classic animation series that went on air --- The Jungle Book in Hindi --- on Indian television in October 1989. The series was an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Several modifications took place in Kipling's sinister original text. Anime makes an attempt to negotiate between colonial undertones and domestication of the tale, posing a question on the authoritative voice of “White Man's Burden.”. Foucault stresses that the author's function historically changes over time. “Adaptation” --- usually viewed as “free translation” --- is an ambivalent activity that gives enough freedom to ensure what Walter Benjamin calls “the after-life of the original”