Original scientific paper
Cat on a Hot, Tin Roof (1958): Transformation of Williams's Text in the Film Medium
Vesna Tripković-Samardžić
; Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University Mediteran, Podgorica
Abstract
The aim of the essay is to show the transformations of Tennessee Williams's play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the transposition to the “big screen“. The article presents the recent trends in adaptation theory according to which a film adaptation is primarily perceived as an autonomous film work of equal status as the original. Recent adaptation theory rejects fidelity to the original as a criterion for evaluation since the adaptation process involves the transposition from one sign system to another and different material and practical contingencies. The film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, transformed in line with the decisions of the censors into the family melodrama that affirms patriarchal order, becomes a “material evidence of shifting intentions“, but also, since it evokes the memories of other movies and bears the stamp of authorship, serves as an example of an open text in constant dialogue with the original. Research of the film version of the play confirms Robert Stam's idea of adaptation as a “hypertext“ which transforms the original i.e. “hypotext“ through selection, emphasis, concretization, actualization and criticism, a text which takes an active attitude towards the original and becomes its rewriting.
Keywords
drama; film adaptation; censorship; intertext; authorship
Hrčak ID:
213400
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2018.
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