Fiction Adaptation Term 1 Essay

Ruby Rogers

Fiction Adaptation Essay:

Discuss the view that' 'with a successful adaptation, the original work is transformed into
something new and different, although remaining many traces of what it was formerly'' with
reference to at least one text adapted for broadcast on television.
Ruby Rogers
Television Production Year 2
2nd November 2014
Word Count:
UCA ID: 1302027
Kath Abiker

Ruby Rogers
Contents Page
Introduction.................................................................................................................Page 3
Main Body................................................................................................................Page 3-5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................Page 5
Bibliography................................................................................................................Page 5

Discuss the view that ''with a successful adaptation, the original work is transformed into
something new and different, although remaining many traces of what it was formerly'' with
reference to at least one text adapted for broadcast on television.

Throughout my essay I will discuss what adaptation is and compare successful

adaptations to ones that are constantly being criticized as they infringe the text and create
a whole new meaning without keeping any of the originality there. Looking at the 2009 Tom
Maier biography Novel ''Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and
Virginia Johnson'' I will look at how it was successfully adapted into the Channel 4 period
drama television series ''Masters of Sex'' without taking away the original story - however
adding completely new ideas to the show to discuss issues in the 1920's such as women's
rights and being openly gay, which creates a new and different angle on the adaptation.
Moreover, I will be looking at the 2004 Jeff Lindsey novel ''Darkly Dreaming Dexter'' and
comparing it to the Fox TV American Drama ''Dexter'' to see how it was adapted into a 7
season show and it's success. In addition I will also discuss how postmodernism
influences TV styles compared to how TV was filmed and edited during modernism, and
look at features of a postmodern text such as hyper reality, nostalgia and bricolage. I will
also discuss how narrative structures dramatically change a media text creating another
dimension to the tv show. Furthermore I will look at theorists such as Jean Baudrilliard and
his idea of simulacrum and hyper reality, Fredrick Jamerson and his theory behind

nostalgia on the past and periods such as the 1920's and also theorist Roland Barthes The Death of The Author, everything is subjective.
Adaptation is the concept of transferring written texts into visual texts however due to novel
imagination being subjective - the audience and film writers may interpret the film in
different ways, this could disappoint the audience as they imagined the story to be
portrayed in a different way. Julie Sanders proposes in her book 'Adaptations and
Appropriations' that adaptations are ''reinterpretations of established texts in new generic
contexts'' 1 (Sanders, 2006:19) I agree with Julie as books have an established story,
however when adapted into a series or film, they re adapted based on the generic contexts
such as the era and time, or popular themes - this could make a TV series modern or be
turned into a different genre. We can establish adaptations in three different forms;
transposition, commentary and analogue. Transposition adaptations are classic forms and
are a direct copy of a text and hardly change it at all - this keeps continuity for the 'fans' of
books as they see the film and it hasn't changed at all. Commentary adaptations are an
idea of altering the text in some way to keep the originality but creating a new text, an
example of this is the Sherlock Holmes novels which have been adapted various times into
films. The new films have been adapted to modern audiences and features Tarantino and
Robert Downy Jr whom make the television series more humorous and modern. Analogue
is a form which changes the whole scenario creating a new and original text, however can
often cause annoyance for the audience if they read a book and find that the film
completely changes or takes out characters and storylines.
define contemporary v postmodernism
Dexter is a Fox TV American drama which is based off the fiction novel 'Darkly Dreaming
Dexter' written by Jeff Lindsey. The novel and television series follows the story of Dexter,
who works as a Blood Spatter Analyst however has a substantial secret which he must
keep hidden - he is a serial killer. Dexter had urges when he was younger to kill, however
he is influenced by his adopted dad Harry to channel his urges for the good. As Harry
became ill and knew Dexter needed a sense of direction in his urges, he encouraged
Dexter to only kill those who deserved it and got away with it - those who have committed
horrible crimes. I decided to look at the novel and the first series to see how both start, and
if there is any changes at the beginning. Watching the first episode of season 1 I found that
the narration starts abruptly with no real start to the story however the character Dexter
threatening some unknown man violently. The TV series starts with a man pushed up
against a wall and some bodies in the background, the male is being pushed to look at the
bodies as Dexter is shouting ''look what you've done'' - immediately as an audience we can
comprehend and see what's happening. However, when reading chapter 1 of the book I
noticed that it builds up very slowly to the gruesome moment when we finally realize what
Dexter is tormenting the man for. The book opens with Dexter explaining his need and
urgency to kill someone and the author explains that Dexter has been watching someone

for a long time who he is going to kill. Dexter explains how he must make sure he protects
his tracks and can't let his secret get out as he's worked too hard to ''protect my (his) happy
little life''. Throughout the first few pages of the book Dexter is talking about how he is
planning to attack the priest, and keeps commenting 'not yet' as he documents the priest
walking out of the Church as Dexter is waiting for him in the back of his card. I noticed in
the TV series the priest says ''Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is --'' which is the same line
as what the priest says in the book. Other narration which is kept the same is when Dexter
is telling the priest that he would never kill children - unlike him and when the priest is
beginning for him to stop hurting him, Dexter torments the priest by asking him 'did the little
boys beg?'. I found that as the TV show kicks into the main action straight away, the book
didn't reach that scene until 5 pages in, showing it used much more build up to the scene.
Dexter calls the urge to kill his 'Dark Passenger', throughout the TV series it doesn't
explain where the urge came from just that he saw his mother murdered as a toddler
extremely brutally and it may have triggered from this. However the author of the book
decided to look deeper into the meaning behind why he wants to kill people - although it is
quite un-realistic. Jeff Lindsay says that Dexter is one of many that has been possessed by
a spirit which causes him to feel urged to kill people. Throughout the TV series Dexter's
character develops and has a personality which makes him likeable in a sense - however
in the book Dexters character doesn't develop much at all as he always seems
emotionless and very sociopathic. Dexter could be seen as a postmodern text as it is
constantly breaking the 4th wall as Dexter is the commentator for the television series and
is speaking directly to the audience. Theorist Todorov believes that most narratives follow
the same path, the characters are in a state of equilibrium where everything is normal, then
there is a disruption by an outside force which leads on realisation from the characters.
After the characters have realised what's happening there is then a restored order and a
new state of equilibrium. This narrative style is called a linear narrative. However,
throughout Dexter we constantly see flash backs of him as a child with his father - this
makes Dexter follow a non linear narrative structure as it is constantly being cut to the past
and future.
More changes that have been made is the fact that a lot of the characters have been
added into the television series - however in the novel they arent there. A huge change
which affected the audience is Dexter's wife Rita is killed off in the 4th season, but in the
novel she isn't. This caused aggravation for many viewers as when reading the novel and
becoming attached to a character, it will shock you when you find that in the television
series the character is killed off. Although this made a very interesting and enigmatic
experience for season 4, it still dramatically changed the story. In addition Sargent
Laguerta's character was allowed much more development and character story as she is
killed off quickly in the novel but in the television series she is killed off during season 7 (of
8). During season 1 it sticks to the novels main storyline which is the famous 'Ice Truck
Killer', however after that the story lines change. One large similarity that is kept between

the novel and the television series (apart from the reason Dexter kills) is the idea that
brother and sister Dexter and Deb are extremely close and have a very tight connection
which is proven when Deb finds out about Dexter's secret.
In 1974 Blumler and Katz released a book called The Communication Theory. They stated
'The same media content may gratify different needs for different individuals'' (Blumler and
Katz, 1974:34) this suggests that when audience reads media they take different needs
from it and may view it in different ways. Roland Barthes also suggests the theory 'The
Death of the Author' he states that everything is subjective as audiences all vary and
imagine different things - as they come from different backgrounds they read different
meanings behind the texts. This means that when audiences read novels, they imagine
everything differently, therefor when a film or television series is released they audience
may become upset or not as impressed with it as their imagination is being taken away. In
relation to the two media texts I analysed, I believe that The Death of the Author will greatly
influence the audience for Dexter as a lot is changed in the television series compared to
the novel - therefor when the audience imagined what the television series would be like,
they was dissapointed to find what they imagined would be taken away, as the character
Rita is killed off.
-discuss postmodernism in 'masters of sex'
-hyper reality and nostaliga in 'masters of sex' > exagerated 50's style/modernised/looking
back/real issues from the 50's addressed in masters of sex
-discuss jean baudrillard and hyper reality
-discuss how the documentary used adaptation techniques to be turned into a tv series

Bibliography.
Adaptation and appropriations 2006 julie sanders.