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

Year 2022, Volume: 15 Issue: 2, 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

References

• Aguilera Martinez, P. (2019). Simon Spier's process to sexual identity formation: Guilt in Becky Albertalli's Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda. Bachelor dissertation. Autonomous University of Barcelona. Retrieved from https://ddd.uab.cat/record/210812
• Albertalli, B. (2015). Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda. New York: Balzer & Bray.
• Albertalli, B. (2017). Simon homo sapiens'e karşı. İstanbul: Pegasus Yayınları.
• Albertalli, B., Magoon, K., & Saeed, A. (2017). Who decides what's right for me? Morality and cultural norms. The Alan Review, 442, 11-15. doi:10.21061/alan.v44i2.a.2
• Berlanti, G. (Director). (2018). Love, Simon [Motion Picture].
• Buckland, W. (2004). Film semiotics. In T. Miller, & R. Stam, A companion to film theory (pp. 84-104). Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing.
• Cartmell, D. (1999). Introduction. In D. Cartmell, & I. Whelehan, Adaptations: From text to screen, screen to text (pp. 23-28). Oxon: Routledge.
• Chesnokova, I. (2015). The addressee types of the internet open letters. Procedia - Social and Behavipral Sciences, 206, 14-17. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.10.005
• Corrigan, T. (2012). Film and literature in the crosscurrents of history. In T. Corrigan, Film and literature: An introduction and reader (pp. 5-52). London: Routledge.
• Dücker, M. (2017). Form and emotion in Stephen Chbosky's the Perks of Being a Wallflower. In I. Jandi, S. Knaller, S. Schönfellner, & G. Tockner, Writing emotions: Theoretical concepts and selected case studies in literature (pp. 159-74). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
• Elliot, K. (2006). Novels, films, and the word/image wars. In R. Stam, & R. Alessandra, A companion to literature and film (pp. 1-22). Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing.
• Fedorov, A. (2018). Film Love, Simon (2018) as a gay manifesto in cinema on school theme. Media Education, 58(3), 32-38. doi:10.13187/me.2018.3.32
• Friesen, N. (2009). Re-thinking e-learning research: Foundations, methods, and practices. New York: Peter Lang.
• Gading, I., & Marsih, L. (2019). Gay representation in Becky Albertalli's Simon vs the homo sapiens agenda. Anaphora: Journal of Language, Literary and Cultural Studies, 37-48. doi:10.30996/anaphora.v2i1.2725
• Gaudreault, A., & Jost, F. (2004). Enunciation and narration. In T. Miller, & R. Stam, A companion to film theory (pp. 45-63). Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing.
• Gouck, J. (2018). The homosexual agenda? I think it's more like the homo sapiens agenda. That's really the point, right?: Reading gender, sexuality, and power in Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda. In U. o. Birmingham (Ed.), Reading YA Conference. Birmingham. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325746009_The_Homosexual_Agenda_I_think_it%27s_more_like_the_Homo_Sapiens_Agenda_That%27s_really_the_point_right_Reading_Gender_Sexuality_and_Power_in_Simon_vs_the_Homo_Sapiens_Agenda
• Haley, J. H. (2018). Love Simon as a modern, gay coming-of-age narrative: A new point of contention and engagement for queer and popular culture. Cinesthesia, 9(Article 2), 1-14. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cine/vol9/iss1/2
• Kennedy, H. (2014). Beyond anonymity, or future directions for internet identity research. In A. Poletti, & J. Rak, Identity technologies: Constructing the self online (pp. 25-41). Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
• Leitch, T. (2012). Adaptation and intertextuality, or, what isn't adaptation, and what does it matter? In D. Cartmell, A companion to literature, film, and adaptation (pp. 89-102). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Lodge, D. (1984). Mimesis and diegesis in modern fiction. SPELL : Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature, 1, 89-108. doi:10.5169/seals-99832
• MacArthur, E. J. (1990). Extravagant narratives: Closure and dynamics in the epistolary form. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Maupin, A. (2016). From the scroll to the screen: Why letters, then and now, matter. The English Journal, 63-68. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/26359229
• Metz, C. (1974). Language and cinema. Hague: Mouton.
• Metz, C. (1991). Film language: A semiotics of the cinema. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Nacify, H. (2001). An accented cinema: Exilic and diasporic filmmaking. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Osborne, A. (2018, March 14). In Love, Simon, music serves as a key inspiration in the production design. (M. Malkin, Ed.) Architectural Digest. Retrieved from https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/in-love-simon-music-serves-as-a-key-inspiration-in-the-production-design
• Peele, T. (2007). Introdcution: Popular culture, queer culture. In T. Peele, Queer popular culture: Literature, media, film, and television (pp. 1-8). New York: Routledge.
• Poletti, A., & Rak, J. (2014). Introduction: Digital dialogues. In A. Poletti, & J. Rak, Identity technologies: Constructing the self online (pp. 3-24). Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
• Pulda, M. (2015). Victim/victor: Stalking the subject of online life writing. Biography, 38(2), 181-204. doi:10.1353/bio.2015.0018
• Rose, J. M. (2004). B seeing U in unfamiliar places: ESL writers, email epistolaries, and critical computer literacy. Computers and Composition, 237-249. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2004.02.002
• Sanders, J. (2006). Adaptation and appropration. Abington: Routledge.
• Slethaug, G. E. (2014). Adaptation theory and criticism: Postmodern literature and cinema in the USA. New York: Bloomsbury.
• Sobchack, V. C. (1979). The grapes of wrath (1940): Thematic emphasis through visual style. American Quarterly, 31(5), 596-615. doi:10.2307/2712428
• Wagner, G. A. (1975). The novel and the cinema. Cranbury: Associated University Press.
• Wasserman, E. (2003). The epistolary in young adult literature. The Alan Review, 30(3), 48-51. doi:10.21061/alan.v30i3.a.12
• Welsh, J. M. (2007). Introduction: Issues of screen adaptation: What is truth? In J. M. Welsh, & P. Lev, The literature/film reader: Issues of adaptation (pp. xiii-xxviii). Lanham: Scarecrow Press.