• MRS. PUPUL MOHANTY

FILMING FICTION: AN INTERSEMIOTIC STUDY OF THE FILM ADAPTATION OF JHUMPA LAHIRI’S NOVEL “THE NAMESAKE” (ABSTRACT)-- Translation studies have addressed the inter-lingual and intra-lingual aspects of translation, but few have explored the inter-semiotic aspect, one out of the tripartite division of translation propounded by the Russian-American linguist and literary theorist Roman Jakobson in his 1959 essay “On linguistic aspects of translation”. The term that proved so often cited had been introduced almost in passing: Jakobson introduced the term as “interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems” (1959) and then provides very general examples of such a transformation: “intersemiotic transposition – from one system of signs into another, e.g., from verbal art into music, dance, cinema, or painting” (1959). The “target” semiotic systems mentioned in the definition also include cinema. While in literary translation the role of the translator is important to convey the sense of the source text, intersemiotic translation involves the creative aspect of the translation (artist or performer, filmmaker etc.) which offers its embodiment in a different medium. The three disciplines of translation studies, semiotics and adaptation studies share a common interest as their research seems to focus on non- linguistic semiotic systems. Because in the process of filming a fiction there is transference of mediums (sign systems) and adaptation. In this paper I have analyzed Mira Nair’s 2006 film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel “The Namesake”. I have taken Roman Jacobson’s “Intersemiotic Translation” as my frame of reference. This paper discusses how film adaptation becomes a mode of intersemiotic translation. It looks at two aspects of film language---the verbal and the iconic (non-verbal symbols, signs, expressions, the miscensene) and how they influence the process of film adaptation. Questions of equivalence, fidelity to the original, intersemiotic translation and its social dimensions, culture, transmutation and its ethics are raised here. How the filmmaker creatively transmutes the source text to make it look best on screen is also focused in this paper. (Keywords: Roman Jakobson, Intersemiotic Translation, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mira Nair, Semiotics, Adaptation, Novel, Film, The Namesake, Fidelity, transmutation and transference)

Roman Jakobson, Intersemiotic Translation, Jhumpa Lahiri,Mira Nair, Semiotics, Adaptation,Novel,Film,The Namesake, Fidelity, Transmutation and Transference

"Journey of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake” from Fiction to Film: A Study on Intersemiotic Translation", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 2, page no.d283-d292, February-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2202337.pdf

"Journey of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake” from Fiction to Film: A Study on Intersemiotic Translation", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 2, page no. ppd283-d292, February-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2202337.pdf