In recent years there has been a great deal of theoretical and practical 
material published on adaptation studies. Among the major works include 
Robert Stam’s Literature Through Film (2005) and Linda Hutcheon’s recent 
Theory of Adaptation (2006), or Linda Cahir’s Literature into Film (new 
edn. 2007), all of which try to move the discussion of adaptation away 
from issues of fidelity, and to interpret the idea of ‘adaptation’ as 
something more than simply transforming a literary or fictional text into 
a cinematic work.

However many of the questions about how adaptation studies might be taught 
in the classroom, at whatever level, remains unaddressed - even though 
adaptation studies are widely taught on a number of programs in different 
departments, both in the United States and elsewhere. There seems to be a 
need for a volume to address such issues, designed both for teachers and 
students - that would not only sum up the major theoretical and practical 
issues surrounding adaptation, but would also show these issues operating 
in practice. The volume might also provide a guide as to the breadth of 
work being done under the name of ‘adaptation studies’.

The potential market for this volume would include students and teachers 
of film studies, popular culture and literature at the university and/or 
high school levels.

Some of the issues that might be focused on could include: -
  

what is ‘adaptation’ - exactly what is adapted and how. What decisions are 
made when a text is adapted and why? What is not an adaptation? 
  
 
  
the social, cultural and economic forces that shape the act of adaptation -
 these may include the particular context in history, or the country in 
which the text is adapted; the vastness of adaptation; transcultural 
adaptations; indigenization; trans-media adaptations (I.e. adaptation from 
one medium to another), and the economic concerns that both lead to and 
limit the scope of adaptation;
  
 
  
the scope of adaptation studies, which can encompass films and TV programs 
adapted from other media as well as books - computer games, video games. 
Are different criteria applied when different media are involved? And does 
this depend on context? 
  
 
  
responding to adaptations - what are the pleasures involved in watching an 
adaptation; ‘knowing’ and ‘unknowing’ audiences; types of engagement with 
an adaptation; degrees of immersion and detachment while watching an 
adaptation (does one actually become engaged with the story or simply 
evaluate what has been done to the ‘original’ text - whatever kind of text 
that might be). 
  
 
  
the pleasures of adaptation - why do adaptations become more popular at 
one point in history as opposed to others. Examples might include the 
early days of Hollywood, when playwrights, poets and dramatists were 
signed by the fledgling studios in order to invest the silent film 
industry with a degree of ‘respectability’. Or one might look at the 
modern era, with the profusion of goods available that have been ‘adapted 
from’ the original movie in order to promote it, or vice versa (e.g. the 
Lara Croft franchise). 
  
 
  
the relationship between adaptation studies and creative writing (picking 
up on point 1) to what extent is an adaptation a creative piece of work to 
be judged on its own merits, or does it have to be always compared with 
the ‘original’ text?

 

Individual contributions are invited, covering one or more of these 
topics. As this book is designed as a textbook, the preferred focus might 
be on how these issues have been dealt with in the classroom. Accounts of 
particular teaching techniques and/or methods would be welcome, as would 
any contributions that engage with theoretical issues concerning 
adaptation, and how they might be discussed in the classroom. The focus 
should be as wide as possible, and not simply restricted to film/literary 
texts, giving some idea of the range of material covered in adaptation 
studies
  
Contributions can be of any length, although we would prefer a minimum of 
(8-10) A4 double-spaced pages. At this point we are interested in 
proposals (500 words maximum) outlining the scope and aims of a possible 
contribution. If you are interested, please contact Dennis Cutchins 
([log in to unmask] <mailto:([log in to unmask]> ) and Laurence 
Raw ([log in to unmask] <mailto:([log in to unmask]> ). 
  
Deadline 30th November 2007.