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The Aspects of Enlargement and Transformation in the Adaptation from Novel to Film

서동훈 1

1대구미래대학 영상광고기획과

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ABSTRACT

The process of turning a novel into a movie involves a change to the narrative to fit the sociocultural environment and logic of economy and the recreation of the original work according to the writer's unique interpretations of it. Also essential to the process are expansion and transformation according to media shifts. This study set out to review the patterns of expansion and transformation of narration at the result of media shifts based on The Scarlet Letter, which was adapted from A Murder at the Photo Shop and A Reflection on the Mirror. It also aimed to investigate the characteristics and differences of novels and movies. First, the point of view of the original novel gets changed in the adaptation process. Such a change is essential to media shifts. The basic difference between novel and film derives from the position of the speaker. Both A Murder at the Photo Shop and A Reflection on the Mirror are written in first-person observer narration, while The Scarlet Letter in omniscient-author narration according to the characteristics of the concerned medium. Secondly, there occur expansion and transformation in time and space. The time changes happening in the process of adapting a novel to a movie mean compressing diverse time compositions of the former in scene compositions in the latter. Such a phenomenon is reversed when it comes to a short story. In The Scarlet Letter, the trunk is changed into the space of a realistic and dreadful atmosphere as the meaning of its space described in the novels fades away. Finally, there occur expansion and transformation in terms of characters and events, as well. The movie borrows the relationships among the characters of the novels. The connotative meanings of the characters' personalities and backgrounds have close relations with the theme of the works and play important roles both directly and indirectly to cause an event. Adaptation is a process of turning a complete artistic work into another. In that sense, the movie The Scarlet Letter is a new creative work and further demonstrates as great artistic features as the original novels by bringing out the characteristics of a medium called film. But it ended up burdening the audience with its excessively highlighted consciousness of theme.

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