Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Media Studies

Abstract

This thesis examines the debate over textual fidelity in novel-film adaptations of five children’s/young adult texts: Peter Pan, Where the Wild Things Are, Alice in Wonderland, Fantastic Mr. Fox and the Twilight Saga: Twilight and New Moon. Each chapter employs a different methodological approach to explore novel-film adaptation in an attempt to move beyond the reliance on fidelity as a criterion for the study of novels adapted to screen. Through narrative analysis, semiotics and reader response theory, each chapter identifies various reasons why direct ‘transfer’ between novel and film is not always possible. In addition I interrogate why, if not viable and largely undesirable, the fidelity criterion persists in adaptation scholarship, film criticism and audience expectations.

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