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Essay / Film adaptation as translation in the example of the tram called Desire by Elia Kazan
The aim of this article is to approach film adaptation as a modality of translation and to show an analysis of the changes that have occurred in the adaptation of the famous play A Streetcar. Named Desire for the big screen. Novels, plays, and films are the most popular narrative modes in the modern world. After cinema began to be seen as narrative entertainment, the novel as narrative fiction began to be the raw material for film adaptations. The filmmakers saw the novel as ready-made material. Plays are also considered more ready material since they are in the form of dialogues. The reason for this constant interest at the very beginning depends on respect for its writer, respect for the literary work itself, its popularity. Although the popularity or success of the literary work enforces the title of the film, not every film adapted from fiction can achieve success. Four points necessary for the success of a literary film are listed by Cahir: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an original essayThe film must communicate specific ideas regarding the full meaning and value of the literary text, as interpreted by the filmmakers.The film must feature a collaboration between filmmakers. skillsThe film must be bold in creating a work that presents itself as a world of its own, which exploits literature in such a way that an autonomous but related aesthetic offspring is born. The film cannot be so autonomous as to be completely independent of or antithetical to the source material (Cahir, 2006: 99). The audience who has seen the version of the play or read the script has its own mental images of the atmosphere of the play and its characters, and no doubt compares its images with those of the play. film version. Fidelity is also questioned: is it faithful to the play?, does it capture the spirit of the play?, is the characterization faithful to the original? Fidelity to the source text could be the major criterion for judging the film. On the other hand, the concept of fidelity has different dimensions: fidelity to the text, fidelity to the spirit of the novel, fidelity to the period... Christopher Orr notes this idea: "In this critical context (he speaks here of intertextuality), the The question is not whether the adapted film is faithful to its source, but rather how the choice of a specific source and how the approach to that source serves the ideology of the film. (quoted in McFarlane, 1996: 10) The adapter can consider the original as “raw material” and its cinematic version as a commentary on the literary text. Even from this perspective, the remaining spirit and essence of the original film text can be questioned. Geoffrey Wagner also suggests three possible categories of adaptation: transposition, "in which a novel is given directly to the screen with a minimum of apparent interference."commentary, "when an original is taken and changed intentionally or inadvertently to some respects. . . when there was a different intention on the part of the filmmaker, rather than an outright infidelity or violation. This analogy, which must represent a fairly considerable gap to produce another work of art. (Wagner, 1975: 28-30) All these comments on the adaptation process show the fact that both adaptation and translation involve an act of communication between a source text and a target text, they involve a transfer of meaning between two different media. According to Catrysee, the adaptation and translationshare the following common characteristics: they involve products that are situated in a complex context of producers, receivers and various other agents; they involve utterances or texts and the interaction between texts and their receivers; translation and adaptation are considered irreversible processes, in the sense that a back-translation is not the same as a source text and, similarly, the novelization of a film adaptation would not be the same thing that the source novel; adaptation and translation are teleological processes, in the sense that they are influenced by the source and target (con)textual conditioners, the latter playing a central role in overall decision-making; notions of “equivalence” can be found both in adaptation and in translation. (qtd. Perdikaki. 2017: 250-251)Lefevere's concept of patronage is also common to both processes, he emphasizes the factors that control the processes of translation and film adaptation, as we will see in the example of the “rape scene”. " of A Streetcar Named Desire. Since adaptations and translations are part of the polysystem, they are also influenced by tangential systems. The model for analyzing the adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire used in the study The case study of this article is based on Ven Leuven-Zwarts' taxonomy of translation shifts. Descriptive/comparative and interpretative elements will be used to explain adaptation shifts. Additionally, Catrysee's descriptive approach to adaptations will be used. The theatrical version and the film version will also be compared accordingly. A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan and released in 1951, is based on the play of the same name written by Tennessee Williams. Written for the stage and not the screen, Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire is considered a classic and ranked among the greatest films ever made, receiving twelve Academy Award nominations. This success shows that the film succeeds in adapting the material on which it is based. Sexual desire, fantasy and illusion, inner and outer appearance, masculinity, femininity are the major themes addressed by Williams in his play. The love, loyalty, psychosis, and cruelty among the characters are also questioned from Blanche's perspective. The transfer of all these themes and subjects is done with the help of Tennessee Williams himself, he collaborates on the script and works with Kazan in the studio. Bray states that: “the director was involved in the writing of the play from the beginning and the playwright was involved in the production process throughout its development” (Bray. 2013: 71). Although it is called Kazan's film, it is difficult to say. that the screenplay is adapted by Kazan since Williams worked in the studio throughout the process. The play's themes – sexual desire, fantasy and illusion, inner and outer appearance, masculinity, femininity – provoke pressure from the studio. It was not very common in the 1950s to deal with such issues on screen and so some changes had to be made. Transferring references to homosexuality, a rape scene, suicide and domestic violence into the film version was not easy for the times. Some dialogue is cut from the original version, including references to Blanche's ex-husband's homosexual tendencies, Stanley's violence towards his wife and Blanche. The rape scene also sparks discussion, with censors wanting the scene omitted. On the other hand, Williams insists on the scene by saying that "the play loses its meaning, which is the..