Revisiting “Medusa’s Ankles” in the Light of the 2018 Film Adaptation
In Intertextualité dans l’œuvre d’A. S. Byatt (2003), I analysed The Matisse Stories in terms of intersemiocity, exploring how this text exploits the paintings and engravings to which it refers, and with which it is illustrated. I explored the relationship between the verbal and the non-verbal, a ma...
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| Julkaisussa: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse, |
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| Päätekijä: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Kieli: | Anglais |
| Julkaistu: |
Journal of the Short Story in English
2022
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| Linkit: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Yhteenveto: | In Intertextualité dans l’œuvre d’A. S. Byatt (2003), I analysed The Matisse Stories in terms of intersemiocity, exploring how this text exploits the paintings and engravings to which it refers, and with which it is illustrated. I explored the relationship between the verbal and the non-verbal, a major thread in Byatt’s work since the second novel in the tetralogy, Still Life (1985), and traced it through two central Byattian questions: what are words, and, can the need for words be overcome? I also read Susannah’s experience in “Medusa’s Ankles” in terms of metamorphosis, another central preoccupation of Byatt’s fiction, comparing her with the Victorian governess Matty Crompton in “Morpho Eugenia” (1992). Matty’s wish to reveal her “real self” is finally granted, supported by many intertextual permutations in the intercalated texts contained in this novella. The present contribution moves on from my earlier interpretations by analysing “Medusa’s Ankles” in the parallel with its film adaptation (Bonnie Wright, 2018). How does the film version interpret and question the original text? What does it elide or gloss over, what does it bring out, and to what ends? Theories of film adaptation are deployed to examine the complex relationship between the original text and the film version, and to this end this article references the work of major critics in the area, such as George Bluestone, Linda Constanzo Cahir, Linda Hutcheon, Thomas Leitch and Yvonne Griggs. |
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