Pygmalion in the cultural industry:the lack of criticism in adaptations of George Bernard Shaw’s worl

Abstract

The paper seeks to presente the drama Pygmalion by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and pointout how the adaptations of this work lost their critical depth due to being more associeted to the commercial and ideological principles of society at the time. To carry out the analysis, we used the concept of cultural industry from Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. The article scenario around two main points: (i) the presentation of Shaw and his work with regard to its critical aspects; (ii) how the adaptations for cinema and the musical changed the original narrative, in particular, the ending, aiming to transform it into a happy ending like a love story. In this sense, it intends to argue that the changes in the work became problematic because the objectives were linked to the capitalist society’s ideology which, transfoming ar tinto merchandise, caused damage to the possibilities of critical reflection.