From news papers to the children´s universe

the saga of The Lagarto, by José Saramago

Abstract

In this article, we will see how the chronicle “The Lizard” moves from the journalistic context (place of origin), increasingly inserting itself into the literary space, in order to reach its maximum degree of literariness when published as a distinct fairy tale. Thus, from living reality to the marvelous, we will go through the transposition techniques applied to the Saramaguian chronicle, always paying attention to the refigurative operations of the text in its various editions. Our analysis strategy will consist of approximating and differentiating between the chronicle and the short story as literary text modalities, since, in the different editions produced from the original text, we will see that the chronicle tends to move away from factual referentiality and get closer, more intensely, to children’s narrative. Therefore, taking into account the processes of hybridization as a theoretical starting point for the development of this work, we will seek to reflect on the possible relationships between the chronicle and the short story, having as a theoretical basis the studies of Dominique Maingueneau (1990), Ítalo Calvino (1999) and Nellly Novaes Coelho (1987 and Peter Hunt (2010).