Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation

The art of storytelling is not a modern invention, neither is adaptation. In spite of their century-old traditions, they both are relevant and evolving. Reading the same stories over and over again would get boring pretty quickly, but transcoding them to different media such as film or video games gives them new meanings, thus keeps them interesting. Adaptation opens up new dimensions for creators and consumers of adaptations alike. However, when the same story – or an element of the story - is used in various different media, it will inevitably spark debates on which one is superior. Adaptations often get frowned upon for appropriating and exploiting their adapted texts. There are many questions and doubts surrounding adaptation, such as what can be adapted and why are certain works easier to adapt.

Linda Hutcheon’s book, A Theory of Adaptation examines these issues and attempts to theorize the process of adaptation. Using an impressive array of sources, the author aims to explore the topic of adaptation without excluding overlooked areas or more recent developments. Her methodology for this involves ”[identifying] a text-based issue that extends across a variety of media, [finding] ways to study it comparatively, and then [teasing] out the theoretical implications from multiple textual examples”.

According to the preface, the book’s aim is to challenge the notion that adaptations are merely secondary, derivative works compared to their adapted texts. Hutcheon also puts emphasis on analyzing intertextuality and confronting the negative perception of adaptations that is so common in our society. The author states that the examples provided in this book aid to help readers get more familiar with the topic and relate to the issues...

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...most attention. Leitch’s review states that this updated volume could have been improved by discussing interactive media in more detail.

Apparently, the purpose of this book was to develop a theory of adaptation. By bombarding readers with irrelevant names and titles, Hutcheon made it very difficult to separate the actual theory from the abundance of examples used in each of these chapters. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anyone who is really interested in adaptation studies and wishes to have a broader perspective on the topic. However, since the author was so awkwardly careful not to state any strong opinions, this book will hardly spark up a productive discussion in classrooms.

Works Cited

William Whittington, Comparative Literature Studies, 45, no. 3 (2008): 404-406

Thomas Leitch, "New! Expanded! Unimproved!," Literature Film Quarterly: 157-160