Adaptation and Sound

Virtually all processes of adaptation necessitate some consideration of sound. Some types of adaptation foreground sound as a distinguishing feature, whereas others de- or re-prioritize specific sound technologies. This chapter provides a sampling of sound- and adaptation-related conversations from the fields of adaptation studies, film history, and intermedial studies to demonstrate the range of sound-based topics relevant to adaptation studies and to provide a foundation for future points of inquiry. This chapter is organized primarily according to medial and modal relationships commonly considered within the field of adaptation studies as unfolding dichotomously between word and image, image and image, word and word, and so on. I consider these relationships in terms of sound technologies and the related adaptive engagement, as well as the critical and historical conversation generated in response to those relationships. The first examples of sound technologies are those in which the adaptive relationship becomes evident through the juxtaposition and integration of sound with or as a source text, as in the illustrated songs, sound effects, lecturers, and musical accompaniments that characterize early cinema programs. Writing on such integrations commonly emphasizes juxtaposition, content recycling, source (re)interpretation, and other elements of interest to adaptation studies. Next, I consider adaptive relationships in which sound technologies replace the source in exhibition, as in radio adaptations of literary sources and audiobooks. Writing on such relationships discusses issues of fidelity and abridgement, as well as market influences on adaptation choices and processes. Focusing on adaptation-related scholarship outside of the book-to-film, word-to-image predominance illuminates considerations specific to certain types or instances of adaptation, as well as those consistent across modes of adaptation; focusing on sound technologies across a range of types of adaptation highlights the inherent intermediality in all adaptive relationships.