Hvar City Theatre Days, Vol. 52 No. 1, 2026.
Original scientific paper
From Drama to Mass Media: Film Adaptations of Croatian Dramatic Literature in the 21st Century
Iva Rosanda Žigo
Zlatko Vidačković
Abstract
This paper analyses feature-film adaptations of Croatian dramatic literature in the 21st century from the perspective of mass media as a branch of communication sciences, starting from the assumption that film introduces the dramatic text into the sphere of mass
media distribution, mediated reception, and broader social visibility. Rather than evaluating
the fidelity of adaptations, the paper focuses on the changes that occur in the transfer of
a dramatic source into the cinematic medium, examining them at the levels of narrative
structure, genre coding, character construction, social commentary, and reception reach.
Particular attention is paid to the question of how the change of medium affects the structuring of meaning and the communicative potential of the dramatic text. The corpus consists of feature films based on plays by contemporary Croatian authors, along with one adaptation of a canonical dramatic text, all considered within the contexts of their production, distribution, and public reception. The analysis shows that film, as a mass medium, often simplifies dramatic structures, reduces ambivalence, and intensifies emotional or genre legibility, while at the same time enabling wider social circulation, a broader audience, and a stronger media impact. The paper concludes that Croatian drama remains a relevant and productive source for film precisely because of its thematic focus on social traumas, family relationships, and identity conflicts, which in the cinematic medium acquire the status of mass-communicated cultural narratives.
Keywords
film adaptation; Croatian drama; mass media; cultural narratives; reception and circulation
Hrčak ID:
347167
URI
Publication date:
6.5.2026.
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