Adaptation Theory

A Brief Introduction

1) Adaptations: typology

1) Medium (intermediality)a) Literary text → literary text (no change

of medium)b) Literary text → film, play, musical, etc.

(change of medium)c) Theme park, video game, etc. (change

of medium, interactivity)

1) Adaptations: typology

2) Faithfulness a) Literalb) Faithfulc) Loose

1) Adaptations: typology

3) Narrativea) Prequelb) Parallelquelc) Sequel

1) Adaptations: typology – Adaptation chain

2) Adaptations: original vs. inferior remake• Adaptation is always “inferior” to the

“original” because it is not original• “Part of this pleasure [gained from

adaptations], I want to argue, comes simply from repetition with variation, from the comfort of ritual combined with the piquancy of surprise.” (Hutcheon 4)

• Outstanding works in one medium can only be inferior in another

• Mediocre literary works – good “raw material” for (film)adaptation

• Fundamental question in analysis: how does the adaptation INTERPRET the source text? (invented scenes)

3) Film adaptations: basic assumptions• Intertextual relationship between adapted

text and adaptation• Change of medium (verbal to visual

language) → necessary changes, problem areas– Narration– Point of view– Style– Allusions

• Essential elements of film narratives:– Mise en scène (frame – similar to paintings,

static arrangement of objects; fluid choreography – similar to theatre) – e.g. shots, angles, light and dark, colour, lenses, filters, camera movement, editing

– Narrative (realistic/formalistic), dialogues, acting, music