New Book: Beyond Adaptation: Essays on Radical Transformations of Original Works

New this month: Beyond Adaptation: Essays on Radical Transformations of Original Works edited by Phyllis Frus and Christy Williams.

Description from the publisher:

Some film and novel revisions go so far beyond adaptation that they demand a new designation. This critical collection explores movies, plays, essays, comics and video games that supersede adaptation to radically transform their original sources. Fifteen essays investigate a variety of texts that rework everything from literary classics to popular children’s books, demonstrating how these new, stand-alone creations critically engage their sources and contexts. Particular attention is paid to parody, intertextuality, and fairy-tale transformations in the examination of these works, which occupy a unique narrative and creative space.

And as always, because this is what I usually find the most important information before I buy a book like this, here is the table of contents:

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Making the Case for Transformation 1

1. Borrowing a Melody: Jane Campion’s The Piano and Intertextuality
PHYLLIS FRUS 19

2. Adaptation, The Orchid Thief, and the Subversion of Hollywood Conventions
DEVIN HARNER 31

3. Historical Figures Transformed: Free Enterprise and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
MARNI GAUTHIER 42

4. Post-Colonial Transformation: The Rejection of English in Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi
ANNE M. REEF 56

5. Transforming Great Expectations: Dickens, Cuarón, and the Bildungsroman
ANTJE S. ANDERSON 69

6. A Fuller Statement of the Case: Mary Reilly and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
LAURIE F. LEACH 83

7. Transforming Shakespeare: Neil Gaiman and The Sandman
JULIA ROUND 95

8. On the Trail of the Butterfly: D. H. Hwang and Transformation
DEBORAH L. ROSS 111

9. Wicked and Wonderful Witches: Narrative and Gender Negotiations from The Wizard of Oz to Wicked
ALISSA BURGER 123

10. “Wonderland’s become quite strange”: From Lewis Carroll’s Alice to American McGee’s Alice
CATHLENA MARTIN 133

11. Stories to Live By: Re-Framing Storytelling in the Arabian Nights Miniseries
JENNIFER ORME 144

12. Mulan: Disney’s Hybrid Heroine
LAN DONG 156

13. Mass-Marketing “Beauty”: How a Feminist Heroine Became an Insipid Disney Princess
MARC DIPAOLO 168

14. Four Times Upon a Time: “Snow White” Retold
STELLA BOLAKI 181

15. Mermaid Tales on Screen: Splash, The Little Mermaid, and Aquamarine
CHRISTY WILLIAMS 194

About the Contributors 207
Index 211

Thankfully, I received a review copy of this title from the editors since I was unaware of it until they contacted me. I am delighted that with so many fairy tale movies in production and near release, there is also a new peak of scholarship on fairy tale (and fantasy) films. I'm also sure many students can rejoice, too, as they search for resources and topics for papers.

The last five articles were of particular interest to me. I just rewatched Aquamarine a few weeks ago with my niece and was more attuned to the Little Mermaid influences than I had been previously for some reason. I haven't seen Splash in years and years, but reading the article made me want to again just to search for the Little Mermaid nuances.

Also, to be clear, not all of the articles are about film adaptations although many of the article titles and even the book cover may give that impression. The article on Snow White discusses four Snow Whites in print: Snow White by Anne Sexton, Snow White by Olga Broumas, The Snow Child by Angela Carter and The Tale of the Apple by Emma Donoghue.

Of course, the article on Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast (which will be rereleased this fall on DVD and Blu-ray) will be of particular interest to many SurLaLune visitors. The article discusses the dichotomy between the Belle in the film and the one mass marketed as part of the Disney Princess money making machine. (Wonder if Rapunzel will join the ranks although she's now Tangled?)

The Mulan article also specifically discusses Disney.

Finally, as a reminder if you are interested in film studies and fairy tales, Jack Zipes's The Enchanted Screen: A History of Fairy Tales on Film will be available this summer.