Adaptation Past, Present and Future: An Interview with Jim Welsh
Abstract
“Adaptation Studies” as a discipline is a comparatively new phenomenon. In places such as De Montfort University’s Centre for Adaptations in the United Kingdom, adaptations are studied and theses produced at the graduate level; in several other institutions worldwide film and theater adaptations are both researched and taught. The corpus of adaptation studies material has been radically expanded, especially after the publication of Robert Stam’s Literature Through Film 2005 . However, it is worthwhile noting that ‘adaptation studies’ as a transformative act had been discussed by critics before that time. George Bluestone’s seminal text Novels into Film 1957 , defined much of the theoretical territory. In 1973 Literature/Film Quarterly was started; and since then it has incorporated essays of various kinds on the subject of adaptation. We interview one of the founders of that journal, Jim Welsh, looking at how and why it came about, focusing on its changing role, and looking at the future of adaptation studies both in the United States and elsewhere.
References
- Bluestone, George. Novels into Film. 1957. New ed. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003. Print.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dir. George Roy Hill. Perf. Paul Newman, Robert Redford. Twentieth Century-Fox, 1969. Film.
- Cahir, Linda Costanzo. Literature into Film: Theory and Practical Approaches. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co. (Publishers), 2006. Print.
- Dubin, Al, and Harry Warren. “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” (1933). Lullaby of Broadway: The Best of Busby Berkeley. Warner Bros., 1979. Audio Cassette.
- Eberwein, Robert T. A Viewer’s Guide to Film Theory and Criticism. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1979. Print.
- Forty-Second Street. Dir. Busby Berkeley. Perf. Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers. Warner Bros., 1933. Film.
- Giannetti, Louis. Godard and Others: Essays on Film Form. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1975. Print.
- -----. Understanding Movies. 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2010. Print. The Great Gatsby. Dir. Jack Clayton. Perf. Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern. Paramount Pictures, 1974. Film.
- The Graduate. Dir. Mike Nichols. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross. Embassy Pictures, 1967. Film.
- Greiff, Louis K. D. H. Lawrence: Fifty Years on Film. New ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP. 2006. Print.