Adaptation theory : the current foci

Abstract EN

This article explores the current directions of adaptation studies, in particular, the use of methods that read adaptations as components of cultural discourse.

Intended to extend and contextualize the debate engendered by the different works on adaptation, the present paper demonstrates the necessity for adaptation scholarship to address more fully than it has the implications of adaptation studies.

In doing so, the paper does not propose a rejection of the current foci or methodologies of the field—in fact, far from it.

In building on existing approaches, it offers a framework through which to expand the theoretical methods they already embrace.

To do so, it surveys three theoretically informed categories: appropriation, intertextuality, and authorship, each of which is proving influential in pushing the field of adaptation studies forward.

These categories provide us with widely used language that addresses adaptation as a cultural force.