Disability, Race, and the Black Satyr of the United States of America: The Case of Grover Underwood from Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief and its Film Adaptation by Chris Columbus
Abstract
This article aims to present the book-to-film metamorphosis of Grover Underwood from Rick Riordan’s novel The Lightning Thief (2005), adapted in 2010 by Chris Columbus for the screen. This character in both works is presented as an excluded member of the society: in the empirical world, as a disabled person, in the mythological one, as a satyr. What is more, in the motion picture, Grover, played by a Black actor, poses as an even more marginalised character, as a representative of a community discriminated in the USA. Therefore, the images of this character reflect the various levels of exclusion and show the ideological significance of a contemporary adaptation for the young audience. The comparative analysis is performed with the use of reception studies and critical race theory perspectives.
Keywords
adaptation; children's and young adult film; children's and young adult literature; Chris Columbus; classical mythology; critical race theory; disability; Percy Jackson; race; reception studies; Rick Riordan; The Lightning Thief
Supporting Agencies
The research results presented in this paper have been obtained within the project “Our Mythical Childhood… The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges” led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw, with funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme – ERC Consolidator Grant (Grant Agreement No 681202).
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University of Warsaw Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6840-6504
Anna Mik – MA, prepares a doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” at the University of Warsaw (Poland) on monsters inspired by Graeco-Roman mythology in contemporary children’s and young adult culture. She works as an assistant in the project Our Mythical Childhood… The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak. Contact: anna.m.mik@gmail.com.
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