The Dialogic Relations between Text and Image: The Grimms’ Snow White in Tarsem Singh’s Creative Film Adaptation

The folktale of Snow White, penned by the Brothers Grimm in 1810, has been adapted to various media since its original handwritten manuscript. In examining the intermedial transition of fairy tales, this paper focuses on the process by which the literary genre of fairy tales is, in principle, based on adaptation: oral traditions, texts, illustrations, and films. Therefore, this paper focuses on the definition of the term adaptation. Intersemiotic transpositions from words to images have a specific sense of transcoding. This paper explores the manner in which the iconography of Snow White is interpreted in relation to gender discourse in Tarsem Singh’s contemporary film Mirror Mirror (2012) and how the film transposes and expands aspects such as characters’ passive and active roles, their expression of emotions, and morals. The analysis is based on Linda Hutcheon’s adaptation theory (2006). Considering this film thematizes female empowerment as a significant aspect, it also cites Laura Mulvey’s gaze theory (1975). This study concludes that a visual narrative is created through dialogic relations between text and images, aiming to create an immersive effect.