Toward a Dialogic Reception in Adaptation Studies: Bundle Theory and Fidelity Discourse in Contemporary Adaptations of Macbeth
William Puckett
Abstract
Exploring the limitations of fidelity discourse with regard to adaptation studies, this essay explores the possibility(s) of a plurality of engagement across media, that will promote a dialogue between source text and adaptation which moves beyond the prescribed 1:1 relationship that fidelity criticism is wont to qualify for any filmic relationship to a literary source. Building on Michael Losonsky’s renewed thoughts on Bundle Theory, this essay argues against the current subjugation of adaptation studies that prioritizes a center-peripheral dialectic comparing any adaptation to the perceived center of a primal literary subject, thus, arguing in its stead for a dialogue across borders—an overlap of media.
Keywords: Adaptation, Fidelity Criticism, Inter-mediality, Bundle Theory, Contemporary Shakespeare
William Puckett (will@williampuckett.com) is a graduate student of Comparative Literature (MSc) at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His research interests include the overlapping of the cultural and temporal coordinates of geographical locations and how this overlap can re-determine identity and future-oriented identity(s) with a specific focus on postcolonial re-presentations of the self. He has been exploring this phenomenon from both the perspective of Literature and Visual Culture within academia.