A Semiotic Analysis of Adaptations of the Picture Books Little Red Riding Hood

• Main Authors: Hsu, Kai-Hsin, 許凱欣
• Other Authors: 陳錦忠
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/dyn3ce

碩士 === 國立臺東大學 === 進修部兒文所碩士班(台北夜間) === 106 === Since Charles Perrault introduced Little Red Riding Hood into the world of literature, its protagonist, Little Red Riding Hood, has encountered the wolf in a variety of genres. When Little Red Riding Hood enters the field of picture books, it is necessary to consider how the ancient story is used as a basis for creating an adapted version. This study will compare samples of picture books that portray the archetypal story to determine methods of adapting Little Red Riding Hood in picture books. This paper is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which explains the research motivations, objectives, and questions behind this study. The second chapter is a literature review, which analyzes literature to develop an understanding of the evolution of Little Red Riding Hood and to discuss theories related to the use of semiotics in this study. The third chapter analyzes illustrations of the character in Little Red Riding Hood by applying semiotic tools, such as the syntagm and paradigm from the theories of Saussure, and by using Grimm’s Fairy Tales as an archetype for segmenting the story. This chapter conducts a semiotic comparison between the archetypal story and character illustrations in samples of picture book adaptions. The fourth chapter presents an adaptation of the plot illustrations of Little Red Riding Hood. It segments the Grimm’s Fairy Tales archetype to form a story cycle from the plot in order to analyze the plot in sample books and extract a model for illustration adaptation. The fifth chapter discusses the study’s conclusions and proposes recommendations. This study applies the syntagm to segment the archetypal story and create an archetypal story cycle. In addition, it also utilizes the story cycle to conduct adaptations and execute a sample analysis of the plot in the story cycle’s opening, development, climax, and resolution. In doing so, this study extracts the basic principles behind the adaptation of sample books. The four methods of adaptation are as follows: (1) the story cycle does not change and illustrations are adapted; (2) the story cycle is completely rewritten and disrupted; (3) the story cycle is changed, but key points are retained; and (4) events are added to lengthen the story cycle. With regard to adapting character illustrations, this study segments the story by sentences in order to determine the number, type, nature, and disguises of characters. These features are then decomposed into units, wherein each segmented unit can be matched in different ways so as to produce a new character through this substitution process. The conclusion of this paper presents some principles for studying picture book adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood. It is hoped that the conclusions of this study will be of use to those hoping to create works in the field of picture book adaptation.