Essay on Adaptation Theory and Fairy Tale Studies

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Essay on Adaptation Theory and Fairy Tale Studies

The level of adaptations from foregoing existing source material (hypotext) as a function of transforming the culture which was originating through the intertexts of narrative, myths, folk tales, poetry, fiction, dramas, and films across a broad spectrum of culture and languages. Adaptation theory is always the challenge faced by a theory that changes the hypotext material to hypertext by considering the characters, narratives, signs, and motifs which cause unique difficulties in adaptation theory that have not been acknowledged by the theory itself. Adaptation theory used fairy tales as examples to show the versions such as ‘Cinderella’. If we talk about the problem or gap that adaptation theory cannot able to cover or try to overcome is the idea of fidelity to the original source material, which was impractical for adaptation to be truthful to the original source and includes interpretative points. Although, somewhere the hypertext (new form) does not able to present the actual form hypotext and shows the inability of adaptation to explain allusion which itself is presented as vital in theorizing fairy tale adaptation.Further, the process of adaptation act as a circular or rounded dance in which the history, stories of heroes, legends, and mysteries were retold over time.

In analyzing the ‘Cinderella’ adaptation theory I was forced to think about that why there is so much reversion or duplicates of Cinderella. According to ‘why fairy tale stick’ the publishing industry are the central reason. All companies in a competitive market want control over the memetic fame of Cinderella. The smallest scale companies sell old versions or basic messages to readers( Zipes,116). Perhaps, the audience’s expectation arises and wants something different which was fulfilled by the most famous text Disney’s Cinderella contaminated with the Perrault, Grimm, and Disney versions that basic belief in motifs of stepmother violence over stepchild.

Considering all the concepts, styles, and other adaptations it was proof that there was no crystal source of original material that adapted from proceeding works. The transformation of one medium to another is always a complex set including the various intertexts performed by the source text. For instance ‘There are numerous straight musical versions of the fairy tale Cinderella; on film, these include, for instance, Disney’s Cinderella (Geronimi/Jackson/Luske 1950) and The Slipper and the Rose (Forbes 1976, scored by Richard M. and Robert B.Sherman). Among the made-for-television adaptations, one should muster Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Nelson 1957, Dubin 1965 and Iscove 1997, which in turn was revised as a stage musical in 2013) and Cindy(Graham 1978), while the stage adaptation range from Mr. Cinder (1929; Vivian Ellis’ ( Gordon and Jubin,4).

There are many reasons why adaptation theory could not able to work very well. The most considered fallacy idea about the process of adaptation of changing one form to another is a kind of myth that adapted material should be trustworthy to its hypotext. Moreover, the interpretation always is given by the adaptation theory which includes the qualified interpretation of original (source) text and somewhere that was ignored by adaptation, the interpretation which gives great help to artistic work. According to Linda Hutcheon ‘Adapters relate stories in different ways. They use the same tools that storytellers have always used: they actualize or concretize ideas, they make simplifying selections, but also amplify and extrapolate; they make analogies; they critique or show their respect, and so on (Gordon and Jubin,6). The factor of interpretation deals with the mold of text from one language to another and every adaptation includes a new cultural involvement which was allotment from the original text.

Furthermore, as varieties of adaptation theory and taxonomy depends upon the premise that Gerard Genette’s term ‘hypertext’ can ultimately be located in a single source text or ‘hypotext'( Blankier,109 ).clearly explain the connection of hypotext with the source which helps the coming hypertext to get idea from the previous sources where hypotext always work as idiolect model like ‘Visualized network of adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice’. The fairy tale adaptation network does not consolidate as compared to Austen’s network. No doubt, Charles Perrault’s (1697 text) become the main source for the rest of the hypertext as ‘Katherine Kingsley, Once upon a dream’ which was highly influenced by Charles Perrault’s but choose another version as a romantic film. Same as the other hypertext of Disney’s Film ‘Cinderella and Ever After’ which is based on Perrault’s text but centralized on feminist discourse. These examples describe that the new text adapted from the old textual source of Perrault’s but the matter of concern is that the setting of Perrault’s itself had no clear source from where he gets adapted and just had an unwritten or verbal tradition of folk and fairy tale. So, there is no normative model for adaptation and allusion are two categories that itself not fit together and represent problems for theorizing fairy tale adaptations. (Blankier,110).

Besides, taxonomies are also one of the troubles causing terms in which adaptation is hard to understand. The main reason that scholars do not ground the common terminology such as ‘reversion, modern-day revision, parody, reworking and so on’. These terms itself they are not functionally the same. On that basis, Jack Zipes proposed a basic system of classification process of Duplication and Revision which was used to describe the function of terminology. The term duplicates are the same as the previous source but revision, on the other hand, is generating something new. Revision expresses the author’s idea, argument, and creative thinking about the original tale and just molded to meet the reader’s pre-planned ideas. On that basis, Zipes put his arguments that ‘these two categories form an ongoing dialectic which forms the foundation of a fairy tale as both a canonical and continuously analog genre, First literary then all media encompassing’.( Blankier,112). But, still, Zipe’s model of textuality does not work for specific fairy tale its work for all fairy tale adaptations not for particular adaptors to generate new work.

Nonetheless, to present a crystal clear picture of lack of specificity textual and meta-textual are the third glass lenses that give the best way to differentiate the adaptations. The text of James Marshell’s Cinderella, Roberto innocent’s Cinderella, and Julies Kistler’s Cinderella at the fire Crackers ball they all were duplicates of Perrault’s text at the textual level they were the same but when we look at the meta-textual level they were extremely different such as Julie Kistler’s work give texture and interiority to their adapted characters to make them more unique as compare to hypertext material and James Marshell’s adapted the original source by cartoonish description. So, here the duplicate status of Zipes does not support at all because Kistler’s Cinderella could not be adapted exactly from the hypertext. In the end, these taxonomies just help to understand the fairy tale adaptation in an easy and malleable way that work as a positive method to originate the large body texts(Blankie,112).

Secondary approach, Zipes taxonomies’ somewhere fail to support adaptation theory then he used another theory method ‘memetic theory’. Zipes link the evolution of fairy tale with a biological paradigm in which genes are transformed from one generation to another through heredity but adopt other changes during mobility same as in the literary fairy world memetic theory is survive through the unique cultural system. As in biology, the genes are responsible for change similarly in fairy adaptation culture passed through texts but texts themselves remain in the same place. But, the memetic theory has no meaningful shreds of evidence in both the field’s biological and fairy tale adaptation. On the other hand, Gary R. Bortolotti and Linda Hutcheon tried an exclusive method to classify the connection of adaptation in literature and biology as compared to the ideas of Zipes. They used narrative and link the sources text with ancestors, narrative with the replicator, and mode of narrative as vehicle and explain the main goal of adaption through the interaction of the author with other environmental factors, new culture, productive thinking, and unreliable thinking about fidelity which also the core issue of adaptation theory(Blankier,114-115).

All the above taxonomies’ are based on the links and transformation of the hypertext to hypertext source which considered a ‘simple transformation’ but Thomas Leitch introduced another grammatical system for adaption from literature to film or we can say textual to visual. He holds the unique strategies to invent a huge type of new texts like ‘Celebrations, Adjustments, Neoclassic imitation, Colonization, Analogue, and Parody. The Leitch approaches are specific yet fluid enough to describe the multitudinous adaptation that announces their relationship to a source text of ‘Cinderella'(Blankier,117-119 ). Further, fairy tale films can catch the intentions of the audience because it provides tales on big projectors through which people can visualize themselves according to their own rules and desires. But somewhere, Fairy tale films lost the mental ability to construct their own image of tale characters due to which the actual version of the tales was disoriented.

To summarize, the fairy tale adaptation is a debated concept that came under the target of many authors, filmmakers, historical storytellers, etc. So, there are some reasons why adaptation theory and fairy tales were not as successful as I already mentioned above as canonical hypertext, fidelity, allusion, and a variety of interpretations. The adaptation of old texts and presentation in various forms is the best way to preserve the historical stories but the limitation of the adaptation theory workout by giving faithfulness to the hypertext and straight or single interpretation of the text. Nonetheless, Disney’s adaptation generates awareness among the spectators at a different level by providing a visual picture of the characters a match the modern era.

Work Cited

Blankier, Margot. Adapting and transforming ‘Cinderella’: Fairy Tale Adaptation and the limits of existing Adaptation Theory. Interdisciplinary Humanities, pp.108-123.
Gordon and Jubin. ‘Telling the tale’: Adaptation as interpretation. Studies in Musical Theatre.Vol 9. no.1 .2015. pp3-11. Intellect Ltd Editorial English language. doi; 10.1386/smt9.13-2.
Zipes, Jack. Why fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. Tylor and Francis Group .2006.

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