The Soteriological Game in ‘Pollyanna. The Glad Game’ (by Eleonor H. Porter) and ‘La vita è bella’ (directed by Roberto Benigni)
The Soteriological Game in ‘Pollyanna. The Glad Game’ (by Eleonor H. Porter) and ‘La vita è bella’ (directed by Roberto Benigni)

Summary/Abstract: The novel Pollyanna (by Eleonor H. Porter) and movie La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful) are found into an intertext motivated by the presence of the soteriological game, having different variants of materialization. Although they have different themes and appear at 84 years of each other (Pollyanna was published in 1913, the movie has done in 1997), both works are centered on the play/game with soteriological valences. While in the novel the glad game is focused on the words spoken, in the film, the game is more focused on silence, both games aiming at the same thing (survival). The present article intends to carry out a contrastive study regarding these works that present as a main similarity a special type of game - with soteriological valences. At the same time, we identify other works with which they are in intertextuality. Also, we reflect on the psychological perspective in analyzing the valences of the two “games”, specifying the psychic mechanisms involved in playing the games in question.

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