Theme: Adaptations:

Reading and sources for lecture:

 Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. ProQuest Ebook
Central, pp. 2-18, p. 149
 Stam, Robert “Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation”, literature and film a
guide to the theory and practice of film adaptations, edited by Robert Stam and Alessandra
Raengo, Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008. pp. 1-46

Class notes:

 Linda Hutchens is saying in her book an adaptation:

o film adaptations are frequently criticized as being secondary, derivative, or culturally
inferior, particularly by academic critics and journalists reviewing these movies.
 Consequently, adaptations—whether in film or other forms—often face
moralistic judgments.
 there are a lot of moralistic statements that are often associated with
adaptations, either film or any other kind of adaptation, so these are
some of the judgments that are being made about adaptations.

Robert Stam
 who is an American film theory, argues
o that there are a couple of reasons that we can use to explain this hostility.
 He says that:
 on the one hand - we still have in our minds this hierarchy of the arts
 and this hierarchy film ranks quite low.
 so often we think of opera and literature
o as the kind of the higher arts
  and then films:
o often considered to be commercial and entertaining and does
not really is often not ascribed any artistic merit.
 then he says well literature also has this kind of right of seniority
o so it is the art form that came before film and because its
senior it is supposed to have more merit and value.
 and then he says, as the last point, there is a logophilia that might also
explain our hostility towards adaptations and film adaptations in particular,
 because we still value the word over images, and we still trust the
word more than we do trust images.
idea of fidelity:

one of the approaches that is often evoked when we talk about adaptation is this idea of fidelity.

 So, we often think that an adaptation is supposed to be faithful to the original text
o there should be approximately between these two texts, and very often that is used as
a kind of major criterion for judgement or focus of our analysis.
o Hutchens and Stan:
 are very critical of this Fidelity approach to adaptation
why?

Faithfulness in adaptations can be tricky because:

o 1st reason:
o Film and written literature
 are distinct mediums for conveying situations.
o In films:
 exposition often needs to be more overt, visually depicting inner turmoil
that would be narrated in a book.
 For instance, a character's depression must be shown rather than
described through internal monologue, as it could disrupt the
pacing.
o Books
  excel at "telling" the story, while films must “show,” requiring different
narrative approaches.

o 2nd reason:
o audiences have varying levels of interest in books and movies.
 People often have different opinions on what should be included or omitted
in an adaptation.
 While it takes time to read a book
 watching a movie only takes a couple of hours.
 Filmmakers must decide what elements to keep ensuring faithfulness to the
source material.

one of it is that this idea of Fidelity can be based on essentialist concept:

o suggesting that there is something essential in a novel for instance that needs to be
preserved
 and here we often think of something almost like sacred
 or it is a recreate if we do tampered with the original
 but then we can ask:
o should an adaptation be faithful?
o should be faithful to the plot or to the form or to the intention,
or the interpretation?
o and then they're often interpretation that can be something
very personal
 interesting to see how the disappointment is very often part of talking about
adaptation:
 we often say I imagine it differently:
 this speaks to our attachment to the original text
o Another problem with the Fidelity criticism:
  is that it excludes the possibility that an adaptation could actually improve
the original text, or than an adaptation may not even want to be faithful to the
original text,
 because it wants to revise it or supplant even the original text
o and then what is also problematic with this idea of Fidelity:
 it suggests in some way we kind of returns to this idea that we have a
hierarchy in our artistic forms, and that film is somehow lower on this
hierarchy.
 so very often then when we approach adaptations from an approach of
cultural studies or post structuralism then we often say, film and novel for
instance they are on the same rank
 so it's a flattened hierarchy and there is also a dynamic
interdependence between text and film, and not rivalry or a
competition but actually both novel and film benefit equally from
adaptations
 and yet Robert Stam says Fidelity is often something that feels true.

Adaptations for discussions in class and reflections;

 Often set in different times, environment etc.

o what is that different environment and how does it impact and then change the story,
or maybe not change the story?
o adaptations are also something we also know from biology, from Charles Darwin
 who used the term adaptation as well and tried to expalin how new species
emerge and how other species survive whole other species die,
 so, for Darwin, and also for this idea of adaptation to society
 adaptation means that it is basically a strategy for survival.
 it means that some species are better suited to adopt to environments.
o so many we can think about something that in this term as
well?
o Maybe texts such as “Hamlet” or “Romeo and Juliet”:
  are still texts that we read because it has been adopted
in that sense, has been made suitable again and again
throughout the years and the centuries and still speaks
to us, maybe because it can travel in different media.

Reading and sources:

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
pp. 2-18, p. 149.

Stam, Robert “Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation”, literature and film a guide to
the theory and practice of film adaptations, edited by Robert Stam and Alessandra Raengo,
Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008. pp. 1-46.