Abstract
Virtually all processes of adaptation necessitate some consideration of sound. Some types of adaptation foreground sound as a distinguishing feature, whereas others de- or re-prioritize specific sound technologies. This chapter provides a sampling of sound- and adaptation-related conversations from the fields of adaptation studies, film history, and intermedial studies to demonstrate the range of sound-based topics relevant to adaptation studies and to provide a foundation for future points of inquiry.
This chapter is organized primarily according to medial and modal relationships commonly considered within the field of adaptation studies as unfolding dichotomously between word and image, image and image, word and word, and so on. I consider these relationships in terms of sound technologies and the related adaptive engagement, as well as the critical and historical conversation generated in response to those relationships. The first examples of sound technologies are those in which the adaptive relationship becomes evident through the juxtaposition and integration of sound with or as a source text, as in the illustrated songs, sound effects, lecturers, and musical accompaniments that characterize early cinema programs. Writing on such integrations commonly emphasizes juxtaposition, content recycling, source (re)interpretation, and other elements of interest to adaptation studies. Next, I consider adaptive relationships in which sound technologies replace the source in exhibition, as in radio adaptations of literary sources and audiobooks. Writing on such relationships discusses issues of fidelity and abridgement, as well as market influences on adaptation choices and processes. Focusing on adaptation-related scholarship outside of the book-to-film, word-to-image predominance illuminates considerations specific to certain types or instances of adaptation, as well as those consistent across modes of adaptation; focusing on sound technologies across a range of types of adaptation highlights the inherent intermediality in all adaptive relationships.
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Notes
- 1.
Kamilla Elliott provides a comprehensive overview of the range of definitions and terminology used to describe and taxonomize adaptation within adaptation theory (2020, 179–191)
- 2.
Title cards, used to convey dialogue or exposition, to establish settings, and to mark transitions, offer another technology of perceptual sound and relied on the audience to internally produce the sound.
- 3.
Specializing in fantasy and science fiction titles, GraphicAudio utilizes high-quality performances and cinematic music and sound effects in adapting novels to audio and, in this way, creates adaptations much more like radio dramatizations than more traditional audiobooks that feature one or two consistent narrators.
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Newell, K. (2024). Adaptation and Sound. In: Bruhn, J., Azcárate, A.LV., de Paiva Vieira, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Intermediality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28322-2_39
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