Adapt or Die: A Study in Adapting Narratives Across Media, Time, and Socio-cultural Change
Translated title
Remediering: Et studie i oversættelsen af narrativer på tværs af medier, tid og socio-kulturele forandringer
Authors
Brohus, Jakob Ranjansen ; Rosenstand, Samuel-August Tornfeldt Boldt Foss ; Bjørn, Asger Bonderup
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-06-01
Pages
160
Abstract
This thesis examines adaptation as a creative, interpretive, and culturally situated practice that extends beyond questions of fidelity to a source. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Linda Hutcheon, Robert Stam, Julie Sanders, and Simone Murray, it explores how contemporary adaptations reconfigure narrative structures, character relationships, thematic emphases, and representational frameworks in response to medium-specific affordances and constraints, shifting audience expectations, and broader cultural developments. Key concepts include transcoding, intertextual dialogism, palimpsestuous works, repetition without replication, and medium specificity, alongside critiques of fidelity discourse and assumptions about originality and medium hierarchy. Methodologically, the study employs comparative textual and film analysis across four cases: Andy Weir’s The Martian (2014) and Ridley Scott’s film (2015), Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary (2021) and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller’s adaptation (2026), William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (c. 1597) and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), and the James Bond franchise (1953–present). The analyses show that adaptation operates as reinterpretation and negotiation rather than replication: narrative meaning is not fixed in a source text but is reconstructed through transcoding, dialogic relations, and contextual reconfiguration. The thesis concludes that adaptations challenge assumptions about the authority of originals and the limits of fidelity-based criticism, and should be understood as a dynamic practice that extends and recontextualizes source works, keeping stories relevant across media, historical periods, and socio-cultural change while reaching new audiences.
Denne afhandling undersøger tilpasning som en kreativ, fortolkende og kulturelt forankret praksis, der rækker ud over spørgsmål om troskab mod en original. Med udgangspunkt i teoretiske bidrag fra Linda Hutcheon, Robert Stam, Julie Sanders og Simone Murray belyser studiet, hvordan moderne tilpasninger omformer narrativ struktur, karakterrelationer, tematiske fokusser og repræsentationsrammer i lyset af mediespecifikke muligheder og begrænsninger, skiftende publikumsforventninger og bredere kulturelle udviklinger. Centrale begreber omfatter transkodning, intertekstuel dialogisme, palimpsestuøsitet, “gentagelse uden reproduktion” og mediespecificitet samt en kritik af troskabsdiskurser og forestillinger om originalitet og mediehierarki. Metodisk bygger afhandlingen på komparative tekst- og filmanalyser af fire cases: Andy Weirs The Martian (2014) og Ridley Scotts filmudgave (2015), Andy Weirs Project Hail Mary (2021) og Phil Lord & Christopher Millers filmatisering (2026), William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet (c. 1597) og Baz Luhrmanns Romeo + Juliet (1996) samt James Bond-franchisen (1953–nu). Analysen viser, at tilpasning fungerer som omfortolkning og forhandling frem for reproduktion: Fortællingers betydning er ikke fastlåst i kildeteksten, men rekonstrueres gennem transkodning, dialogiske relationer og kontekstuel omkonfigurering. Afhandlingen konkluderer, at tilpasninger udfordrer antagelser om originalers autoritet og begrænsningerne ved troskabsbaseret kritik og bør forstås som en dynamisk praksis, der udvider og re-kontekstualiserer kildetekster, holder historier relevante på tværs af medier, perioder og socio-kulturelle forandringer, og bringer dem til nye publikum.
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