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In:Transmedia in Translation and Transculturation
Edited by Vasso Giannakopoulou and Elin Sütiste
[Benjamins Translation Library 167] 2025
► pp. 55–71

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The (dis)appearance of Don Juan in Tallinn

Erosion of a myth in a Soviet Estonian film

 | University of Tartu
Published online: 20 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.167.03kal
Abstract
This study examines the trajectory of Don Juan, the reception of his character, and the myth’s curious and creative transformations. Unlike other renowned literary figures, Don Juan has become detached from his original creator, Tirso de Molina. While Hamlet remains inseparable from Shakespeare and Don Quixote from Cervantes, Don Juan is often more closely associated with Molière, Mozart, and Byron than with Tirso’s El burlador de Sevilla. The article traces the myth’s evolving identity across time and media, emphasizing how the Don Juan figure has served as a flexible narrative template across cultural and ideological contexts.
Exploring the many variations of Don Juan’s story raises both theoretical and practical questions: Why does the character remain widely recognized despite the overshadowing of its original source? Among the most unconventional and freely adapted versions is Don Juan Tallinnas [Don Juan in Tallinn], a 1971 Soviet Estonian musical comedy. This film uniquely inverts the myth by featuring a female protagonist who, upon arriving in medieval Tallinn, is immediately confronted by women who perceive her through the lens of Don Juan’s legend. This gendered inversion is not merely a playful twist but a radical recontextualization of the myth within the constraints of Soviet cinema and the cultural particularities of Estonia under Soviet rule.
The film prompts a series of questions regarding the nature of Don Juan’s proliferation: What kind of transformation does this represent? What is the film’s prototext or source text? Is it an adaptation, a remake, or an extension of an earlier version? This analysis approaches the film through the lens of transmediality, considering its intermedial connections and narrative transpositions. In foregrounding this relatively obscure adaptation, the article also examines the intersection of cultural memory, gender politics, and national identity as mediated through the Don Juan myth.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The multiplicity of terminology surrounding transmedia
  • Don Juan’s universe
  • Origins and evolution of Don Juan
  • The evolution of Don Juan’s myth
  • Don Juan in Estonia: The Case of Don Juan Tallinnas
  • Application of transmedia terminology in the analysis
    of a multi-layered media text
  • Notes
  • References
References (38)
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