Ekphrasis’ and Fanopeia’s Effects in the cinematic representation of The RighStuff

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of a sequence of the film The rightStuff, 1983, by Philip Kaufman, making from it a parallel with the text of Tom Wolfe in the book-entry of the same name, which inspired the film. Based on concepts from rhetoric and literary theory - read ekphrasis and fanopeia - which deal with literary representations of images and vice-versa, we intend to seek similarities and differences between works in different art forms - literature and cinema. The intention is to create a system of representation, which passes through the directos’s imaginary to interpret and adapt the book by Tom Wolfe, who used the literary journalism to register the odyssey Mercury Project and the mission of the first NASA astronauts.