The relationship between books and film has been one of the key topics of cinema studies. Much of this criticism, however, has been inherited from eighteenth-century debates on poetry and painting and thus has fostered false and limiting paradigms in which words and pictures are opposed. Rethinking the Novel/Film Debate historicizes and critiques the central paradigms of this debate. Testing theory against practice, and uncovering the hidden agendas, Kamilla Elliot creates alternative critical models that can be applied to the novel/film issue in an effort to transform the field for future inquiry. In the process, she mounts a major critique of novel theory and film history and theory, demonstrating how rivalries have shaped and falsified each discipline when considered separately.

From intertextuality to postmodern cultural studies, narratology to affect theory, poststructuralism to metamodernism, and postcolonialism to ecocriticism, humanities adaptation studies has engaged with a host of contemporary theories. Yet theorizing adaptation has been declared behind the theoretical times compared to other fields and charged with theoretical incorrectness by scholars from all theoretical camps. In this thorough and groundbreaking study, author Kamilla Elliott works to explain and redress the problem of theorizing adaptation. She offers the first cross-disciplinary history of theorizing adaptation in the humanities, extending back to the sixteenth century, revealing that until the late eighteenth century, adaptation was valued for its contributions to cultural progress, before its eventual - and ongoing - marginalization by humanities theories. The second half of the book offers ways to redress the troubled relationship between theorization and adaptation. Ultimately,Theorizing Adaptation proffers shared ground upon which adaptation scholars can debate productively across disciplinary, cultural, and theoretical borders.

The critical relationship between books and film has been one of the key topics of cinema studies. Much of the discussion, however, has been inherited from eighteenth-century debates between poetry and painting and thus has fostered false and limiting paradigms in which words and pictures are opposed. This volume historicizes and critiques the central paradigms of the debate. Testing theory against practice, and uncovering the hidden agendas, Kamilla Elliott creates new critical models that can be applied in an effort to transform the field for future inquiry.