The NU Library & SSH Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature are delighted to invite you to a book presentation “Dona Barbara Unleashed: From Venezuelan Plains to International Screen” by Jenni Lehtinen. 

About the book

Since its publication in 1929, the story of Doña Bárbara has haunted the collective Latin-American imagination, and has been adapted variously both for the small and big screen. Doña Bárbara Unleashed explores how Rómulo Gallegos’s original story has been kept alive yet altered by subsequent screen adaptations; the book illustrates how film and telenovela adaptations have reinterpreted Doña Bárbara in order to mirror changes in societal norms, such as the role of women in Latin American societies, and audience expectations. Particular attention is given to how spectators in the twenty-first century have played a crucial role influencing the alterations to which Gallegos’s original plot has been subjected. Now Doña Bárbara Unleashed offers an original way of studying screen adaptations by engaging several adaptations of the same source text in dialogue with each other, rather than simply comparing adaptations to the source text. This is a ground-breaking study that further develops readings through more traditional theories of screen adaptations with approaches emerging from fandom studies and audience responses. 

About the Author

Dr. Jenni Lehtinen is an Associate Professor of Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures in the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University. Dr. Lehtinen obtained her doctorate in Latin American Literature from Wolfson College, University of Oxford in 2011. She also holds a Master of Studies degree in European Literature (Wadham College, University of Oxford), a Master of Arts degree in Screen Studies (Birmingham City University), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History (Queen Mary, University of London). Before joining Nazarbayev University, she lectured at the University of Oxford and worked as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Exeter.

More about the book, you can find at Amazon website.

Format: Hybrid

YouTube Premier Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8zMX4FZZxQ