Capote Essay -- Analysis, Journalism, Literary Adaptations

Even though it is problematic to define the happening of an event as a â€Å"text† or â€Å"hypotext†, works of literary journalism are closely related to the framework of adaptations because an adaptation is defined as the process of making a work of art upon the basis of elements provided in a different medium; furthermore, works of literary journalism often resemble the filmic construction of a screen play. Before I support my argument by using Stam’s theories about literary adaptations into film from his essay "Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation", I will start with a short summary of Stam’s article. He starts his essay by complaining â€Å"The language of criticism dealing with the film adaptation of novels has often been profoundly moralistic, awash in terms such as infidelity, betrayal, deformation, violation, vulgarization, and desecration, each accusation carrying its specific charge of outraged negativity† (54). He claims that a more effective criticism will be based in â€Å"contextual and intertextual history† (75), and less concerned with vague ideas of fidelity. He believes that absolute fidelity is impossible due to (1) the difference in medium between novel and film, (2) the lack of a single absolutely correct reading of a novel, and (3) the intertextuality of all novels and films. He claims that: â€Å"Each medium has its own specificity deriving from its respective materials of expression† (59), and explains that the written word is the novels only component of expression, while the film has more components such as â€Å"moving photographic im age, phonetic sound, music, noises, and written materials† (59). Therefore, certain changes are inevitable. Stam is also concerned with the term ‘faithfulness’ in film adaptations. Is it... ...e subdivided into eighty-six scenes which tell the facts of the case by constantly alternating the viewpoint (132), which is obviously a technique of screen writing. In his biography Capote, Clarke also identifies Capote’s style as cinematic when he claims that: â€Å"Despite Brook’s effort, it [the movie In Cold Blood], has little of the book’s impact. Paradoxically, it is also less cinematic than the book† (386). To conclude, the similarities in the process processes of transforming a body of hypotexts, the similarities between mediation filters in the process of adapting a novel into a film and adapting a factual case into a non-fiction novel, as well as the fact that most adaptations are realized in a style that creates a cinematic experience for the reader, are factors that proof my proposal that works of literary journalism can also be seen as adaptations.