Debate on ‘A Theory of Adaptation’
TEHRAN.(Iranart) - Book City Institute will hold a meeting to review and debate “A Theory of Adaptation,” a 2006 analytical book with a critical overview of the process adaptation, written by Canadian literary critic and theoretician Linda Hutcheon.
Persian translation of “A Theory of Adaptation” by Mahsa Khodakarami is released by Markaz Publications in Tehran. The translator will attend the meeting on May 29, 4:30 pm at the Cultural Center of the institute located on the corner of Alley 3, Ahmad Qasir Street, north of Beheshti Avenue.
Other attendants of the meeting are writer, translator, literary critic and theoretician Amir-Ali Nojoumian; and art researcher Mohammad-Jafar Yousefian who specializes in cinema and performing art, Book City reported on its Persian website (bookcity.org).
“A Theory of Adaptation” explores the process of development of creative adaptation, and argues that the practice of adapting is central to the story-telling imagination.
Hutcheon, 70, develops a theory of adaptation through a range of mediums, from film and opera, to video games, pop music and theme parks, analyzing the breadth, scope and creative possibilities within each.
Her book on adaptation begins with the statement, “adapting is a bit like redecorating,” which is an apt description of what is happening across the media landscape today.
Interior design shows have revitalized countless homes with new paint and selective staging. Bestselling novels have revisited familiar characters and settings without their original authors. Film narratives move from the screen to the stage then back to the screen in a few short years, and video games extend classic films and TV programs in order to allow gamers to navigate (and often shoot their way) through familiar cinematic environments, US-based expert in cinema and media studies William Whittington wrote in a review published in Project Muse (Muse.jhu.edu).
With an understanding of this new terrain, “A Theory of Adaptation” supplements comparative adaptation theory with a critical overview of the entire process of adaptation. In doing so, Hutcheon stages a new approach to evaluating the adaptation that considers not only narrative strategies, but also the mediums in which they are presented.
source: FINANCIAL TRIBUNE