This collection of forty new essays, written by the leading scholars in
adaptation studies and distinguished contributors from outside the
field, is the most comprehensive volume on adaptation ever published.
Written to appeal alike to specialists in adaptation, scholars in allied
fields, and general readers, it hearkens back to the foundations of
adaptation studies a century and more ago, surveys its ferment of
activity over the past twenty years, and looks forward to the future. It
considers the very different problems in adapting the classics, from the
Bible to Frankenstein to Philip Roth, and the commons, from online
mashups and remixes to adult movies. It surveys a dizzying range of
adaptations around the world, from Latin American telenovelas to Czech
cinema, from Hong Kong comics to Classics Illustrated, from Bollywood
to zombies, and explores the ways media as different as radio, opera,
popular song, and videogames have handled adaptation. Going still
further, it examines
the relations between adaptation and such intertextual practices as
translation, illustration, prequels, sequels, remakes, intermediality,
and transmediality. The volume's contributors consider the similarities
and differences between adaptation and history, adaptation and
performance, adaptation and revision, and textual and biological
adaptation, casting an appreciative but critical eye on the theory and
practice of adaptation scholars--and, occasionally, each other. The
Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies offers specific suggestions for
how to read, teach, create, and write about adaptations in order to
prepare for a world in which adaptation, already ubiquitous, is likely
to become ever more important.
