Textual and Visual Correspondence Between the Novel and the Film: The Epistolary Narrative of Love, Simon

Year 2022, , 558 - 582, 15.10.2022

Özgür Çalışkan

https://doi.org/10.18094/josc.1105515

Abstract

Love, Simon (2018) is an American comedy-drama film directed by Greg Berlanti and based on Becky Albertalli's novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015) about the email correspondence between Simon and another male student from his high school. Digital correspondence and Simon's voiceovers form the backbone of the storytelling. Comparing the book and the film, with a particular focus on the written form of communication and the narrator's inner voice, one can observe differences between the textual and visual forms, especially when considering the narrative line. This paper examines how the novel as a text centered on digital correspondence is transformed in the film adaptation. The paper aims to reveal how the role of the narrator changes from novel to film in the context of Plato's mimesis and diegesis. The similarities and differences between the use of text through the narrative line are analyzed within the scope of adaptation theory and poststructuralist textual analysis, and the transformation of mimetic and diegetic epistolary storytelling into diegetic and non-diegetic speeches, sounds and visuals in the film universe. As a result, it has been revealed that the film has mega-textual features in the context of adaptation and correspondence, that it has been adapted to the film without losing the characteristics of the story through intertextuality, that it stands at a point of transmission, that it successfully visualizes the anonymity in correspondence, and that it carries the plot and the identity of the characters to the visual dimension.

Keywords

Love, Simon, Epistolary, Coming out, Correspondence, Film adaptation, Film narrative

Roman ve Film Arasındaki Metinsel ve Görsel Yazışma: Love, Simon Filminde Mektuplaşma Anlatısı

Abstract

Love, Simon (2018), Greg Berlanti'nin yönettiği ve Becky Albertalli'nin Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015) adlı romanından uyarlanan, Simon ile lisesinden bir başka erkek öğrenci arasındaki e-posta yazışmalarını konu alan bir Amerikan komedi-drama filmidir. Dijital yazışmalar ve Simon'ın seslendirmeleri olay örgüsünün merkezinde yer almaktadır. Kitap ve film karşılaştırıldığında, özellikle yazılı iletişim biçimine ve anlatıcının iç sesine odaklanıldığında ve anlatı çizgisi göz önüne alındığında, metinsel ve görsel biçimler arasındaki farklılıklar gözlemlenebilmektedir. Bu çalışma, dijital yazışmaları merkeze alan bir romanın film uyarlamasına nasıl dönüştüğünü incelemektedir. Makale, Platon'un mimesis ve diegesis kavramları bağlamında anlatıcının rolünün romandan filme nasıl değiştiğini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Uyarlama kuramı ve postyapısalcı metin analizi kapsamında metnin anlatısının kullanımı ile mimetik ve diegetik epistolar hikaye anlatımının film evreninde diegetik ve diegetik olmayan konuşmalara, seslere ve görsellere dönüşümü arasındaki benzerlikler ve farklılıklar analiz edilmektedir. Sonuç olarak, filmin, uyarlama ve mektuplaşma bağlamında mega metinsel özellikler taşıdığı, metinlerarasılık aracılığıyla hikayeyi, özelliğini kaybetmeden filme uyarlayarak aktarımsal bir noktada durduğu, yazışmadaki anonimliği başarıyla görselleştirerek olay örgüsünü ve karakterlerin kimliğini görsel boyuta taşıdığı ortaya konmaktadır.

Keywords

Love, Simon, Mektuplaşma, Açılma, Yazışma, Uyarlama film, Film anlatısı

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