Defining an adaptation

One of the core difficulties in defining an adaptation is figuring out a precise line between what is considered original and what defines an adaptation. This gets more complex when you also account for the varieties of variations that occur. This process of thinking about the lines between adaptations generates some questions: What causes something to be an adaptation? Where is the line between adaptation and variation? What kinds of adaptations are there? Are all adaptations variations, and are all variations adaptations? To answer these questions, it is best to have a running example that allows the distinctions between these terms to be fully illustrated. For this purpose, Cinderella, being very prevalent and well known with a large amount of content made for it, is a useful example. All adaptations require a change in the medium of their presentation that is substantial; therefore, narrative strategies, such as a change in perspective, are variations on the original story without being considered adaptations. This point is in sharp contradiction to scholars who look into the idea of adaptations, but the over-expansion of the use of adaptation is making the word lose all meaning and becomes a useless phrase (Hutcheon, 2006). Many different types of adaptations vary in their level of closeness to the original, including archetype-adaptation, variation-adaptation, theme-adaptation, and a adapted historical variation. A theme-adaptation is an adaptation on the main tropes and ideas in a type of story. Chinese Cinderella is therefore a theme-adaptation on the Cinderella story because it includes a variety of similar themes like being in an abusive family and escaping said family, but does not contain a plot structure or certain elements of the Cinderella story (Adeline Yen Mah, 2015). An archetype-adaptation is an adaptation that uses some of the plot elements and general structure of the original tale, but without specific elements less central to the story and often with some twist upon the original. Many of the modern Cinderella films fall into this category, such as A Cinderella Story, which places Cinderella in a modern setting with the removal of some of the more gruesome scenes in the Grimm tale (Rosman, 2004). A variation-adaptation is an adaptation that remains very close to a specific variation and tries to stick as closely to that variation as possible. The Cinderella portion of the movie Into the Woods is a variation-adaptation that sticks very closely to the Grimm variation of the Cinderella story including elements such as the stepsisters getting their eyes pecked out; this definition breaks down with the second half of the movie which moves it into the realm of a archetype-adaptation, but for the purpose of explanation the first half of the movie before the second giant comes is a variation-adaptation (Marshall, 2014). It is also important to note that theme-adaptations and archetype-adaptations are in their own way variations on any other variation of the tale. Within the story of Gambling Hansel the Grimm Version I have focused this project on is a written adaptation of a spoken variation of the tale recorded by the brothers Grimm with alterations to it that we cannot track so therefore it is an Archetype-adaptation and its own variation. This new variation has had several other variations included in the same Archetype like The Three Wishes(Irish) the English variation by the same name and Pedro the Blacksmith. Various adaptations have been made like a Variation-adaptation in the form of a picture book called Gambling Hansel and a theme-adaptation as an event in the video game Hands of Fate 2.
  Adeline Yen Mah. (2015). Chinese Cinderella. Puffin Books. Defiant Development. (2017). Hand of Fate 2 [Microsoft Windows]. Defiant Development. Hutcheon, L. (2006). A theory of adaptation. Routledge. Glassine, H. H., (1985). Irish Folktales. In Internet Archive. New York: Pantheon Books. https://archive.org/details/irishfolktales00glas/page/311/mode/1up Marshall, R. (Director). (2014). Into the woods. Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture. Pino Savedra, Y., & Internet Archive. (1967). Folktales of Chile. In Internet Archive. [Chicago] University of Chicago Press. https://archive.org/details/folktalesofchile00pino/page/54/mode/1up Rosman, M. (Director). (2004). A Cinderella story. Warner Brother Pictures.