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Part of
The Pragmatics of Adaptability
Edited by Daniel N. Silva and Jacob L. Mey
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 319] 2021
► pp. 101–116

Chapter 5
Ad-appting children’s stories

| University of Southern Denmark

This chapter studies the multimedia adaptation of a classic children’s story, Dr Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat. Mixing story-telling with instructional instrumentality and lacking an interactive relationship with the story-teller, the story loses the ‘enchantment’ which, Bettelheim has argued, makes story-telling fundamental in the child’s development.

Keywords: adaptation, enchantment, multimedia, orality, story-telling
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Enchantment
  • 3.Instruction
  • 4. The Cat in the Hat
  • 5. The adaptation
    • Sound
    • Voice
    • Music
    • Camera movement
    • Reading the story
    • Interactivity
    • Parental control
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 17 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.319.05van
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