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State of the Conversation: The Obscene Underside of Fidelity

State of the Conversation: The Obscene Underside of Fidelity After the field of adaptation studies shifted towards intertextuality as its governing theoretical framework in the early aughts, two major changes occurred: critical consensus overwhelmingly pointed out that fidelity criticism was a theoretical dead end, and the variety of scholarship produced under the umbrella of adaptation ballooned at a dizzying pace. As the field continues to expand and become more inclusive, however, it is increasingly difficult to determine a cohesive theory that accounts for the division between adaptation and other intertextual modes: allusions, plagiarisms, remakes, sequels, homages, mash-ups, appropriations, and the list goes on. Insofar as scholars have continued to seek an explanation for what adaptations are at the level of form, a question perpetually arises that reinforces a model of adaptation subtly rooted in fidelity: if adaptation is repetition without replication, what exactly repeats? This essay argues that the field of adaptation studies is ill-served by centralizing a model of adaptation that is at base formal or aesthetic, and that critics have more to gain by exploring what discourses of adaptation do in the cultural arenas where adaptations circulate. Using the ambiguous relationship between the films Enemy of the State and The Conversation as a limit-case of adaptive repetition, this essay articulates a model of adaptation that not only accounts for the persistence of fidelity but goes so far as to claim the politics of fidelity as an area that deserves ongoing academic attention. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Adaptation Oxford University Press

State of the Conversation: The Obscene Underside of Fidelity

Dicecco, Nico
Adaptation , Volume 8 (2) – Aug 29, 2015
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References (21)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
ISSN
1755-0637
eISSN
1755-0645
DOI
10.1093/adaptation/apv011
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

After the field of adaptation studies shifted towards intertextuality as its governing theoretical framework in the early aughts, two major changes occurred: critical consensus overwhelmingly pointed out that fidelity criticism was a theoretical dead end, and the variety of scholarship produced under the umbrella of adaptation ballooned at a dizzying pace. As the field continues to expand and become more inclusive, however, it is increasingly difficult to determine a cohesive theory that accounts for the division between adaptation and other intertextual modes: allusions, plagiarisms, remakes, sequels, homages, mash-ups, appropriations, and the list goes on. Insofar as scholars have continued to seek an explanation for what adaptations are at the level of form, a question perpetually arises that reinforces a model of adaptation subtly rooted in fidelity: if adaptation is repetition without replication, what exactly repeats? This essay argues that the field of adaptation studies is ill-served by centralizing a model of adaptation that is at base formal or aesthetic, and that critics have more to gain by exploring what discourses of adaptation do in the cultural arenas where adaptations circulate. Using the ambiguous relationship between the films Enemy of the State and The Conversation as a limit-case of adaptive repetition, this essay articulates a model of adaptation that not only accounts for the persistence of fidelity but goes so far as to claim the politics of fidelity as an area that deserves ongoing academic attention.

Journal

Adaptation – Oxford University Press

Published: Aug 29, 2015

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