Nadsat - The Language of Violence: from Novel to Film
AUTOR(ES)
Noletto, Israel A. C., Costa, Margareth Torres de Alencar
FONTE
Ilha Desterro
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2017-04
RESUMO
Abstract Nadsat, an artificial language constructed by Anthony Burgess, is used in his novel, apparently, as means both of immersion, alienation and repulsion of the reader. Kubrick’s filmic adaption of A Clockwork Orange recognizes the paramount role of Nadsat, and gives life to it as a spoken language through the lines of Alex and his droogs in his homonymous production. The aim of the present article is thus to examine the author’s artificial language, its occurrences in the novel as well as in the filmic adaptation following the contributions of Gualda (2010) and Hutchings (1991) to film studies, while tracing the glossopoeia’s meanings and effects on the audience, and how both the author and director seem to manipulate the implications of reception theory as formulated by Wolfgang Iser (1978). The questions answered by this article are whether the role played by Nadsat in the novel corresponds to that played in the film; and what the implications of Iser’s reception theory in the novel and the film are. The results will show that without an understanding of Nadsat the reader/viewer will not be able to fill the gaps of interpretation left by Burgess and Kubrick.
