Adaptation – lecture notes
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There are various definitions of what constitutes popular culture including:o
Well liked by many people -so sales figures might reveal this or box office takings.
o
High culture and low culture – some things being perceived as being more worthy
(although postmodernism challenges this distinction and suggests that the lines are
more blurred and that there is no longer any such thing as high/low culture
o
Culture originating from the people - e.g. folk music. Although again, there are
difficulties with this definition.
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Popular culture changes over time
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E.g. Shakespeare was considered to be popular culture as was ballet – for the masses. They
were looked down upon but not today.
Adaptation
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Adaptation is not new – plays have been made and re-made ranging back from Greek plays to
religious epics.
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The Lion King is an adaptation of Hamlet.
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Both are stories about a young prince whose uncle murders his father, the king. The young
prince then goes off to think about what he must do and returns to kill the uncle.
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We also are able to adapt stories from one media to another.
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The Dr Who television show has been adapted into comic books.
WHY adaptations?
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Each different media franchise has the potential to bring not only old fans along with it, but
also to lure new fans in.

Richard Dawkins has suggested that stories that are repeated operate like viruses: that they
have an ‘infective power’ over us (quoted in Hutcheon, p. 177).
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His ideas have been applied to the media in the form of ‘going viral’ and ‘viral videos’.
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Linda Hutcheon in reading suggests that part of the pleasure of adaptation comes ‘from
repetition with variation’, from the comfort of ritual combined with piquancy of surprise’
(Hutcheon, p. 4)
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Obvious financial appeal, too: producers can sell essentially the same product over and over
again.
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Also, a safe bet: an already popular story is more likely to sell again.
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A number of ways that stories can be adapted and re-sold: prequels, sequels, director’s cut
DVD’s, spin-offs.
What purpose do adaptations serve?

Linda Hutcheon (p. 7-8) suggests that adaptation is ‘repetition, but repetition without
replication’
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In other words, she argues that adaptation always involves alteration.
Hutcheon suggests that there at least 3 potential purposes for adaption:

To copy the source -- aim to replicate it as closely as possible; to re-create the source text in
a new medium.
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Rewrite the source – aim to erase the original and replace it with the new.
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Call the source into question – aim to rewrite it with new motives, morals, settings, or
artistic qualities.
Definition of ‘adapt’: make (something) suitable for a new use or purpose; modify.

Adaptation can involve a variety of different modifications, including:
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A shift of medium (from short story to film, for example)
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A shift of genre (from short story to novel)
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A change of frame (telling the story from a different point of view; in a different time period,
etc.)
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A transposition from the real to the fictional: Jaws an updated re-telling of the Jersey Shore
shark attacks of 1916
So, adaptation can be viewed in three ways:

As a transposition of an existing work (it changes the work in some way)
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As an interpretation of an existing work (it makes new meanings from old material)
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As having an intertextual relationship with the existing work (the old and new works engage
with one another; the new work adds to the meanings of the original work

A transformation from text to film/dance/television/opera =
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A transformation from being “told” to being “shown”
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So the way we engage with an adaptation of a text can be very different than the way we
engage with the book itself.

If we have already read the book beforehand, the things we see and hear in a film can be
disappointing, because they can contrast with our imagined ideas about the characters and
settings:
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Detail is also limited in a film, which will normally be limited to about two hours.
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So that we may not get as full a sense of the story as we do in the book.
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We look in on a story but do not become actively involved in them.
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But video game and virtual environment adaptations of stories add a dimension: they
involve us in the action!

In playing a Harry Potter video game or in the Pottermore online environment, we do not
just read, listen, imagine, see and hear the story, we do all these things and participate as
characters in the story, too.
Disney films
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Disney animated films are often adapted from fairy tales that originally had dark messages
or morals.
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The fairy tale of Snow White ends with the Wicked Queen being made to step into a
glowing-hot pair of iron shoes and dance until she dies.

And in Hans Christian Andersen’s original version of ‘The Little Mermaid’, the mermaid
doesn’t end up living happily ever after with the prince.
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What happens is that he marries someone else and she considers killing him
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But instead, she throws herself into the sea, where her body dissolves into foam.
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These were all stories that were appropriate to their times: they were warnings to girls that
they shouldn’t be vain and jealous, or shouldn’t
go wandering off in the woods by
themselves, or fall I love with a guy that was out of their league.