The Limits of Adaptation

I consider where we might draw the line on adaptation. The question of what should count as an adaptation cannot be answered in terms of either textual features or audience behaviour. Instead, adaptations, as independent communicative acts by adaptors, provide evidence to encourage audiences to seek out correspondences and engage in potentially extensive (but constrained) context construction. There are, however, texts based on other texts, such as audiobooks, abridgements, and fan fiction, and the libretti and narratives of operas and ballets, which seem intuitively not to qualify. I contend that it is not enough that the author of the new work intends that it be treated as an adaptation: the audience must recognize this intention and engage in specific kinds of interpretive processes as a result.