Rewritings

Rewritings, or modified versions of a work to suit the tastes of a particular audience, are quite common in the field of literature or any other art form. The most common are stories that are retold for children. As Lefevere states, “Rewritings are based on certain guidelines, in this case [when stories are retold for children] of a predominantly ethical nature” (30). References to violence, sexuality or unpleasant incidents like death and war are kept to a minimum for a child reader. Of course it becomes extremely difficult to do this when the story intrinsically contains these elements. The example that Lefevere gives is that of Gulliver’s Travels. In the original novel, Gulliver urinates on the palace of the Queen in Lilliput, to put out the fire. This is effective in putting out the fire, but causes the place to stink and therefore the Queen becomes angry with Gulliver. However, in the version retold for children, Gulliver puts out the fire by filling his hat with water and pouring it on the fire. This explains the fire going out, but cannot explain why the Queen is angry with him. This can of course be thought of as a loss in translation, a problem that you encounter while adapting stories to children’s tastes.

A more popular example is that of Arabian Nights. Originally written in Persian as Alif Laila, this story was originally not intended for children. The story of Scheherazade who tells a story every night to escape death at the hands of her husband King Shahryar, was toned down considerably for children. There is no mention of why Shahryar comes to distrust women and wives (it is actually because his former wife cuckolded him). Other than a few stories like that of Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, most of the stories have not been adapted for children, as they are unfit for children’s tastes.

The epics are also difficult texts to rewrite for children. The hostility between the Kauravas and Pandavas, the story of Karna and his birth, the violence of the Kurukshetra war etc are not really children’s stories. However, this is underplayed while it is being told to children.