Although it started as a British television show with a small but
devoted fan base, Doctor Who has grown in popularity and now appeals
to audiences around the world. In the fifty-year history of the
program, Doctor Who’s producers and scriptwriters have drawn on a
dizzying array of literary sources and inspirations. Elements from
Homer, classic literature, gothic horror, swashbucklers, Jacobean
revenge tragedies, Orwellian dystopias, Westerns, and the novels of
Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh have all been woven into the fabric
of the series. One famous storyline from the mid-1970s was rooted in
the Victoriana of authors like H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan
Doyle, and another was a virtual remake of Anthony Hope’s The
Prisoner of Zenda—with robots! In Doctor Who and the Art of
Adaptation: Fifty Years of Storytelling, Marcus Harmes looks at the
show’s frequent exploration of other sources to create memorable
episodes. Harmes observes that adaptation in Doctor Who is not just a
matter of transferring literary works to the screen, but of bringing a
diversity of texts into dialogue with the established mythology of the
series as well as with longstanding science fiction tropes. In this
process, original stories are not just resituated, but transformed
into new works. Harmes considers what this approach reveals about
adaptation, television production, the art of storytelling, and the
long-term success and cultural resonance enjoyed by Doctor Who. Doctor
Who and the Art of Adaptation will be of interest to students of
literature and television alike, and to scholars interested in
adaptation studies. It will also appeal to fans of the series
interested in tracing the deep cultural roots of television’s
longest-running and most literate science-fiction adventure.
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Fifty Years of Storytelling
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781442232853
Publisert
2015
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Bloomsbury USA
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter