Mezi slovem a obrazem: teorie a praxe filmové adaptace literárního díla

Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D.

Doctoral thesis

Between Word and Image: Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation

Abstract:

Vztahy mezi literaturou a filmem skýtají prostor pro řadu interdisciplinárních analýz, rozvíjení teoretických konceptů i pro nový pohled na českou literaturu a kinematografii. Disertační práce si klade za cíl přinést odpovídající metodologii, a tu pak využít při analýze vybraných literárních děl a jejich filmových přepisů. Z toho důvodu je rozdělena do dvou částí, teoretické a interpretační. Nejprve jsme se pokusili zmapovat angloamerickou badatelskou oblast, která poskytuje adaptační modely a četné podněty ke studiu filmové adaptace. Načrtli jsme stěžejní témata probíhající debaty k teorii filmové adaptace a pokusili se korigovat nepřesnosti zasahující vědeckou práci i kritiku. V jednotlivých analýzách vyjdeme ze srovnání narativních strategií literárního díla a jeho filmového přepisu. Proto jsme věnovali důkladnou pozornost poznatkům naratologie, zejména konceptům literárního a filmového vypravěče, fokalizace, implikovaného autora, postavy atd. V interpretační části byla analyzována ta literární díla, která se stala předlouhou pro film. Spojnici mezi vybranými prózami tvoří tematizace válečné nebo těsně poválečné doby. Volba jednotlivých děl zároveň dokresluje poetický pohyb, k němuž došlo v české kultuře od druhé poloviny padesátých let do přelomu sedmdesátých a osmdesátých let 20. století. Zaměřili jsme se na díla: Romeo, Julie a tma (Jan Otčenášek [1958] – Jiří Weiss [1959]), Adelheid (Vladimír Körner [1968] – František Vláčil [1969]), Zrození Horského pramene – Cukrová bouda (Vladimír Körner [1979] – Karel Kachyňa [1980]).

Abstract:

Between Word and Image: Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation The analysis of the phenomenon of adaptation poses a fundamental question: how to practically address a widespread phenomenon that has not yet been paid systematic attention to in the context of Czech literary criticism. Critical reading of structuralist and post-structuralist metatexts of Anglo-American literary and film theoreticians led me to methods on the basis of which it was possible to analyse the selected film adaptations of literary works. This also presents the basis of the division of the thesis. In the first part of the work, I search for models of interpretation, while in the second part, I use these models to analyse the individual adaptations. As part of the primary considerations regarding adaptation, it was necessary to cope with a number of prejudices that have been influencing scholarly work and criticism. Literature, being a long-lived and time-tested medium, appears to be more valuable than film that only had to justify its artistic distinctiveness. I point out the false foundations of logocentric approaches that regard adaptation as a mere imitation of the original, the original being in essence, of course, more valuable. I also show that the quite widespread emphasis on the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the adaptation to the original is a questionable and overly general evaluation criterion. The diachronic development of the theoretical adaptation discourse is dealt with in the description of individual adaptation models (G. Wagner, M. Klein a G. Parker, D. Andrew, and B. McFarlane). Czech scholars have not developed a specific adaptation model, nevertheless, the issue was addressed by Jiří Cieslar who distinguishes adaptation and interpretation of the original. I further complement the existing models with the dichotomy of open and closed adaptation. An open adaptation is polysemantic, with a new work of art emerging, interpreting its original and the director seeking an innovative film solution. On the other hand, a closed adaptation presents to the viewer only a limited share in the update of the original, one-sidedly interpreting its model and refraining from problematic topics and/or discrepancies of the original. The methodological basis of the work is represented by the theory of narrative. Here, the crucial starting point for interpretation is a comparison of narrative strategies of a literary work and its adaptation. Therefore, the thesis focuses on the literary and film narrator, the voice-over, implied author, focalization, characters, etc. The relationship between the Czech post-war literature and film reflects the situation in the society at that time. The process of unification of art predicted at the end of the 1940s did not come true – the schematism of the first half of the 1950s was replaced by its gradual retreat. The 1960s bring a significant turnaround. Stressing the sophisticated character of the new work of art, changes in poetics, development of authenticity rather than ostentation, polyphony – all these aspects make this decade the most important adaptation period of the 20th century. Modern narrative approaches in literature and its film versions often abandoned transparent causal logic, thus deepening the insight into human experience. The position of a faltering and unstable subject is brought to the foreground. The promising development of the relationship between literature and film was resolutely cut off at the beginning of normalization. I support the picture of changes occurring from the end of the 1950s until the 1980s by the selection of analyzed adaptations. The first analyzed work is Weiss’s film version of Jan Otčenášek’s novel Romeo, Julie a tma (1959). Weiss’s adaptation concentrates on the characters of Pavel and Hana, tending to focus on their relationship during the Heydrichiade. The comments of the authorial narrator disappeared, endowing the adaptation with deeper authenticity.

Abstract:

The period of the 1960s and its variety of topics and poetics was documented by the analysis of Körner’s novel Adelheid and its film adaptation of the same name created by František Vláčil (1969). Vláčil adopted the basic narrative structures of the literary work, including unreliable narration. I submit a number of examples that reveal the narrative structure of the adaptation, development of characters, poetics of places suggestively evocated by intentional usage of various colours and colour shades, thus demonstrating the comprehensiveness and coherence of the film adaptation. The third analysed work is Karel Kachyňa’s Cukrová bouda made at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s as the adaptation of Vladimír Körner’s Zrození horského pramene (1979). Though this novel resembles Adelheid both in topic and style, there is an evident shift towards smoothing the discrepancies of the Czech post-war borderlands. The film version adopted even more the child’s perspective, suppressing – in this way – a number of traumatizing topics. The rawness of the dramatic narration was substantially subdued.

Keywords

Literatura, film, slovo, obraz, teorie, adaptace, literature, image, theory, adaptation

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 6. 12. 2007

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 13. 12. 2007
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Jiří Kudrnáč, CSc.
• Reader: prof. Mgr. Pavel Švanda, PhDr. Jaroslav Med, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Doctoral programme / field:
Philology / Czech Literature