Analyzing Film Adaptations From Literature English Literature Essay

Analyzing Film Adaptations From Literature English Literature Essay To this date, the employment of adaptation theories to novels has yet to reach its true potentials’. Although The Harry Potter novel series are popularly known around the globe and has attained the world’s best seller status, sadly, there are not many critical studies relating to its adaptations. Most critics examine and evaluate each adaptation rigorously conforming to the principle of how faithful the adaptation remains to the text. This gives emphasis to the fundamental approach, fidelity. Hypothetically, a critic may naturally compare an adapted film to his or her own interpretation rather than to its source. In such a case, the critic’s view often contradicts with other critics, especially with a novel as complicated as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In other words, each reader tends naturally to â€Å"adapt† a book that he or she reads and then think of the novel in a certain way. â€Å"The novel tells the tale of a young wizardâ €  or, â€Å"The novel focuses on the wizardry society in a magical world† or a synthesis of any number of views. Each view, each reading or each adaptation-is unique and remarkable, and none of these perceptions can be considered right or wrong. These perceptions are similar to the ideas presented in a renowned film adaptation article entitled â€Å"The Resistance to Theory†, written by concept theorist Paul De Man. The idea presented by de Man concentrates on the bond between a text and its meaning, ultimately ascertaining that it is unfeasible to attain a definitive meaning for whichever text. De Man stresses that As we can see, adaptation is as old as the film itself and shows no indication of weakening. Greg Jenkins, one of the authors of Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation: Three Novels, Three Films, considers adaptation â€Å"as a presence that is woven into the very fabric of film culture† (Jenkins 8). Even though, Jenkins’s statement is in accor dance with the theory of adaptation but a definite theory does not exist. Scholars and critics constantly excogitate on adaptation, yet they don’t seem to reach a definite conclusion on what constitutes an adaptation to be a success or a failure. â€Å"[Adaptation] represents such a dark and enigmatic thread that it has elicited disparate and sometimes diametric opinions. Even among those who champion faithful adaptations, there is no clear formula concerning how generally to implement the procedure, or afterwards how to evaluate the procedure’s success or failure† (Jenkins 8). The predicament of adaptation depends on many external sources. Plagued by indefiniteness and uncertainties the field of adaptation constantly struggles to address questions such as what is an Author? Who is the author of this work? What is a Text? Which text should be given importance: the novel or the film? Should an adapted film be indebted to its source, if this is true then how is th is possible? Should a film remain faithful to its source? Is an adapted film merely a version of the source text or can it be perceived as an autonomous work of art? Over the years, these and many others questions have endlessly tormented the processes involved in the study adaptation.