Don Quixote unbound: Intertextuality, interpictoriality and transculturality in Flix’s German graphic novel adaptation (2012)

Altenberg, Tilmann ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6686-6550 2023. Don Quixote unbound: Intertextuality, interpictoriality and transculturality in Flix’s German graphic novel adaptation (2012). European Comic Art 16 (1) , pp. 6-42. 10.3167/eca.2023.160102

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Abstract

Comics adaptations of literary classics often struggle to step out of the shadow of their model. This article explores how the recent adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote by German comics artist Flix transposes the Golden-Age classic to a contemporary German setting, updating the story to speak to some of modern society’s concerns. Flix’s approach is marked by an ironic distance from his textual and pictorial sources, which he repurposes without losing sight of the Spanish novel’s story arc, character constellation, and narrative devices. The adaptation restores the original comicality to a classic that has mostly been read as a tragic story. While the adaptation inscribes itself into Germany’s cultural fabric, it proposes a Don Quixote that transcends traditional notions of clearly delimited, monolithic national cultures.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Modern Languages
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NC Drawing Design Illustration P Language and Literature > PC Romance languages P Language and Literature > PD Germanic languages P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature
Uncontrolled Keywords:	adaptation, canon, cartooning, Miguel de Cervantes, parody, superhero comics, satire, translation
Publisher:	Berghahn Journals
ISSN:	1754-3797
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 October 2022
Date of Acceptance:	16 October 2022
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2024 00:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153443

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