Literature and Film Adaptation Theories: Methodological Approaches

Abstract

Filmmakers started to adapt works of literature from the beginnings of cinema. For decades, many scholars who wrote about film adaptations considered them to be an inferior cultural product. It was not until the 1950s that a new perspective in adaptation studies appeared. Unlike previous decades, film and literature started to be perceived as different media with their own idiosyncrasies. Since then, several methodological approaches were developed, with the aim of providing a methodology that is suitable to study film
adaptations. However, many scholars found them unproductive. From the beginning of the 21st century, new perspectives in adaptation studies have emerged and several methodological approaches have been developed. This article describes the most influential ones, emphasizing the intertextual dialogic approach and the most recent theoretical frameworks.