Comparative Readings in Word, Image, Performance
The comparative readings presented in this book illustrate how transmedial practices of reinterpretation generate unique constellations of meaning on thresholds of textuality, highlighting the pivotal role of adaptation and retelling in twentieth-century Irish art and literature. The critical readings in this context concentrate on Oscar Wilde’s Salomé in its bitextual dialogue with Aubrey Beardsley’s captivating illustrations, three different stage adaptations of the Deirdre legend, Harry Clarke’s fabulous visual retellings on stained-glass, and Neil Jordan’s film adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s Breakfast on Pluto. Each case study is filtered through a critical lens that views transposed storyworlds within their cultural and social networks. Drawing on the critical discussions and conceptualizations in adaptation studies, the book invites readers to revisit issues concerning the evolution of stories as they pass through different forms and tools of authorship.
