RAPUNZEL (2018): THE CLASSIC TALE OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM ILLUSTRATED BY FRANCESCA DELL’ORTO

Abstract

The German collection «Kinder-und Hausmärchen» created by the brothers Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm, originally published in the 19th century, is today universally known and translated throughout the world, having crystallized much of the our collective literary memory (Garralón, 2017; Silva, 2013). But the wide dissemination of these old plots is not exempt, naturally, from a process of acculturation and transformation largely through their reception in different formats or media (painting, radio, cinema, television, internet). Illustration plays a significant role with regard to the repetition or architecture of alternative pictorial models and the preservation and dialogue of/with literary memory (MALE, 2019). Nowadays, we can see that several illustrators have been focusing their work (or part of it) on the image recreation of classic tales. The form and content of these plots have, in recent years, been the subject of careful editions for children in object-book format. This brief study aims, therefore, to highlight the role of the imagery discourse written by the Italian Francesca Dell'Orto, in synchrony with the exploration of the support and manipulation of folding flaps, understood as relevant semantic instruments and promoters of the (re)reading of the classic tale Rapunzel (2018). We will seek to highlight the main graphic-pictorial strategies, often motivating a physical relationship with the book, which in dialogue with an intriguing illustration imbued with symbolism, make this work a surprising exercise in sophisticated reading.