Adapting poetics : a fusion of ideas in literature to film adaptation

This study attempts to formulate and test an original idea in adaptation theory, one that exploits theproductive aspects of the two main tendencies in adaptation studies, fidelity and intertextuality. Thequestion that is addressed here is how the prioritization of a novel's poetics as the focal point for thetransposition of the literary text can inform the study and practice of literature to film adaptation. Itwill be argued in this thesis that an abstract description of the literary and filmic work can be usedas a blueprint for the transposition between the two media. In the context of this study, adaptation isdefined as a mode of engagement with the source text, while the adapter is defined as the agencyresponsible for the transposition. Poetics, in the context of this study, is a system of aims andmethods, that represent the work of art as a system of creative decisions. Michail Bakhtin's conceptof dialogism, as well as his view of the author, have informed the theoretical structure of this thesisto a significant degree.The proposition has been tested in the context of adaptation criticism, through an examination ofFrancis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Theapplication of the rationale of this thesis on the specific case has revealed a complex system ofinteraction between two works that are superficially very different. In the context of adaptationpractice, a form of practice based research has been employed in the discussion of the filmicpossibilities of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. The system that derives from theconceptual framework of this thesis has created a discussion of alternatives, through a jointconsideration of source poetics and medium demands.The conclusion of this research is that the focus on the poetics of a work can potentially providefertile ground for the examination of adaptation as product, and for the practice of adaptation as are-contextualisation of literary works in the filmic medium.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral (Level 8)

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Gkikas, PA

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1402701

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1402701