Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In 1883, just a few years after the unification of Italy, the first edition of The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini) was published by Paggi in Florence. The book enjoyed an immediate success which has lasted to this day. In addition to innumerable Italian editions, there have been scores of translations into many different languages and more or less free adaptations in all kinds of expressive forms: cinema, theater, comic books, and television. In literature alone, Pinocchio has generated an astonishing number of derivative texts, among which are those that expand on the original story by adding new adventures for the wooden marionette, those that continue the story beyond the original ending in which Pinocchio transforms into a child, parodies, and texts that are entirely independent of the original story. In the latter, the fictional character of Pinocchio is principally used as a “mask” (in the tradition of the Italian commedia dell'arte) characterized by specific features–such as a long nose and the tendency to get into trouble–and is then placed in the most diverse situations: for example, the world of journalism ( Pinocchio Newspaperman , 1911), an underwater world ( Pinocchio Diver , 1911), and the exotic world of Africa ( Pinocchio in Africa , 1907). Such a wealth of transpositions, including Disney's famous adaptation, present ... log in or subscribe to read full text