12/7/21, 3:01 PM Adaptation Studies, Translation Studies, and Interdisciplinarity.

Reflections on Siblings and Family Resemblance1 | Adaptation | O…

Adaptation Studies, Translation Studies,

and Interdisciplinarity. Reflections on
Siblings and Family Resemblance
Patrick Cattrysse 

Adaptation, Volume 12, Issue 3, December 2019, Pages 206–221,

https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apy011
Published: 24 September 2018

Abstract
Definitional issues are not new in translation and adaptation
studies (TS and AS, respectively), and neither is the question of
whether AS and TS should be seen as one discipline studying one
object of study or rather as two disciplines studying two distinct
sets of phenomena. This paper argues that an interdisciplinary
view on the subject may offer some analytical tools that help
advance this discussion. Since the issue is in part one of
definition, Section one looks into theories of definitions and
discusses four types of definition that could be of use to our
debate. This leads to the paradoxical conclusion that to define
translations and adaptations is at once easy and difficult. Words
like ‘adaptation’ or ‘translation’ are common nouns, which
point to sets of entities that share nonunique features. Hence to
name is to categorize. Section two probes into theories of
categorization and how they could help categorize translational
and adaptational phenomena. It turns out that a study of
categories and categorizing must involve categorizers.
Consequently, one may study science as an epistemic practice,
but also as a social one. This introduces section three, which
looks into the emerging discipline of interdisciplinarity studies,
that is, the study of the compartmentalization (e.g.,
disciplinarization) of academic knowledge. The conclusion that
follows suggests that perhaps, instead of trying to absorb each
other, AS and TS should consider themselves rather as siblings,
that is, members of a larger family called intertextuality or
influence studies.

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Keywords: Adaptation, translation, interdisciplinarity, film studies

Issue Section: Original Articles

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