Migration and death in the intersemiotic translation of The Death and Life of a Severino

This paper aims to discuss the intersemiotic translation of the literary text The Death and Life of a Severino: A Pernambuco Christmas Play, written by Joao Cabral de Melo Neto, into the film Morte e Vida Severina em Desenho Animado, directed by Afonso Serpa. Circumscribed within the scope of qualitative research, this study is classified as documentary and bibliographical. First, we analyze some elements of the book (genre, language, characters, plot, setting, irony, and social criticism) and the film (film movement, colors, photography, characters, and sound effects). Then, we address the intersemiotic translation of two signs: migration and death. We rely on Charles Peirce's Semiotics (2005) to comprehend the meaning-making process in the passage from the literary system to the cinematographic system. We show that for the construction of the sign migration, in the book, Cabral makes use of specific words and expressions, rubrics and the setting. In the film, on the other hand, Serpa resorts to scenography, depth of field, and camera shots, angles and movements. In the book, the sign death comes to life through the theme, characters, and discourse. In the film, in turn, it is constructed through photography, colors, characters, intertextuality, and mise-en-scene.