KHALED HOSSEINI IN COMICS: A READING PROPOSAL FOR THE ADAPTATION OF THE NOVEL THE KITE RUNNER (2005)

• Grant number: 25/04784-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Educational Teaching and Learning
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Teixeira Luiz
• Grantee: Maria Isabel do Nascimento Lima
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Kite Runner (2005), by Khaled Hosseini, is a novel that tells the story of the friendship between two young people who experience the last days of the Afghan monarchy. A great success in the contemporary publishing market, the work has received several adaptations, including for the world of comics. In Brazil, the publisher Globo Livros released The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel in 2011 and 2024. Based on this adaptation, this scientific initiation project aims to address the reinterpretation of the work Khaled Hosseini, proposed by Italian cartoonists Fabio Celloni and Mirka Andolfo, for the comic book format, thus problematizing how the Afghan text was revisited by European comics, highlighting, above all, the devices used for the visual reconstruction of the protagonist duo Amir and Hassan. To support this proposal, the present study is based on the contributions of Luyten (1987), Barbieri (1991), Clüver (2006) and Groensteen (2015), in addition to using publications on reading, literature and literacy signed by Candido (1995), Citelli (1998), Gancho (1991) and Cosson (2006). Furthermore, with the aim of investigating how the trajectory of the characters Amir and Hassan was reconstructed in the universe of the adaptation, only one (01) chapter of significant relevance to the plot will be selected, which will serve as the object of investigation to be defined according to the theoretical framework previously explained. Strictly speaking, the relevance of this project lies in the purpose of analyzing the role of literature and visual forms in the process of transposition from one medium to another, with emphasis on the context of comics, since they have a very significant potential among adolescents. In this direction, the research also contemplates the qualitative approach, oriented towards the development of a possibility of reading a comic book, a material that is easily accessible to students in Basic Education. (AU)