Narrative transmutations: an analysis of Jorge Volpi’s novel Las Elegidas and its cinematic version

Abstract

This article analyzes the novella Las elegidas (2015) by Jorge Volpi and its film adaptation of the same year, directed by David Pablos, through the lens of Robert Stam’s post-classical adaptation theory. Moving beyond the paradigm of fidelity, this study examines adaptation as an intertextual process in which literary and cinematic narratives engage in a dynamic dialogue and mutual transformation. Using theoretical tools such as intertextuality and transtextuality, this analysis explores the mechanisms through which the film reconfigures the novel’s narrative codes, introducing new discursive and aesthetic dimensions, including cinematic reimagining. Given the limited academic literature on these cultural products, the analysis draws on journalistic and critical sources contemporary to the novel’s publication and the film’s release. Additionally, it considers Las elegidas within the tradition of Mexican social-issue cinema, particularly in its depiction of human trafficking. First, the study will examine the literary structure of the novel, emphasizing its experimental composition and its transtextual connections, including biblical references that enrich its discourse on violence and sexual slavery. Subsequently, it will explore the intersemiotic translation at work in the film adaptation, highlighting the narrative and stylistic strategies that reinterpret the original work’s conflicts through cinematic language.