Introduction

Literature, Film, and Their Hideous Progeny: Adaptation and ElasTEXTity argues on behalf of creative adaptations that reread and rewrite prior works of art, forging new perspectives and variant ways of looking not simply at source texts as their origins but at the creative means by which adaptations come to be. My hope is that the analyses that follow can model for students, readers, and viewers a way of engaging cultural production that promotes greater openness to the ingenious if challenging conversations that can take place among creative works across time and medium. Because of their potential for promoting cross-textual conversations and observing connections among sometimes very dissimilar works, studies in adaptation, when construed broadly, invite a kind of critical thinking that moves viewers and readers beyond their comfort with inherited boundaries and preexisting patterns.1