introduCtion: AdAptAtion in A ConvergenCe environMent
21
the Rings, Game of Thrones, Tomb Raider, or Alien franchises. In these cases,
novels, films, and video games coexist with commercial radio and stage play
adaptations, board games, and so forth, as well as countless unofficial fan
adaptations/appropriations. These interconnected text clusters as much as
the phenomena of new narrative media and fan creations demonstrate “that
the definition and practices of adaptation are changing with the evolution
of new forms.” 30 Just as adaptation studies approaches can draw on newer
forms of television or video game studies in studying the first, and on fan
studies’ approaches in coming to terms with the second development, here,
too, adaptation scholars come into contact with those working under the
labels of transmediality or convergence culture, transmedial narratology, and
other fields. The clustered adaptations produced within a franchise logic of
excess and multiplicity challenge concepts of narrative cohesion, sequence,
and so forth; a phenomenon which, as Rüdiger Heinze demonstrates in his
contribution, benefits from a narratologically informed adaptation studies
perspective.
As this discussion makes clear, adaptation studies needs to build on a
variety of disciplines to view convergent adaptations and franchise media
not only in their intertextual, but also in their societal framework. Factors
that come to the fore are related to social changes, changes in the structures
of production and distribution, and so forth. Literary and film studies, the
disciplines that have traditionally informed adaptation studies methodolgy,
only offer limited tools to describe and conceptualize these. To the extent
that adaptation and transmedia studies ground themselves on a cultural
materialist approach, the historical and industry transformations that production studies focuses on need to influence the direction from which we
approach adaptations in a convergent environment. 31 Approaches that already
incorporate such elements as how Hollywood industry structures impact
the shape of certain film adaptations suggests that the field can easily do so.
This Volume
The contributors to Adaptation in the Age of Media Convergence both individually and collectively expand the horizon of the fields of adaptation and
30 O’Flynn, “Designing for the Interactant,” 83.
31 Johnson, Media Franchising. Derek Johnson, “Battleworlds: The Management of Multiplicity in the Media Industries.” In World Building: Transmedia, Fans, Industries, ed. Marta Boni
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), 129–142.
21
the Rings, Game of Thrones, Tomb Raider, or Alien franchises. In these cases,
novels, films, and video games coexist with commercial radio and stage play
adaptations, board games, and so forth, as well as countless unofficial fan
adaptations/appropriations. These interconnected text clusters as much as
the phenomena of new narrative media and fan creations demonstrate “that
the definition and practices of adaptation are changing with the evolution
of new forms.” 30 Just as adaptation studies approaches can draw on newer
forms of television or video game studies in studying the first, and on fan
studies’ approaches in coming to terms with the second development, here,
too, adaptation scholars come into contact with those working under the
labels of transmediality or convergence culture, transmedial narratology, and
other fields. The clustered adaptations produced within a franchise logic of
excess and multiplicity challenge concepts of narrative cohesion, sequence,
and so forth; a phenomenon which, as Rüdiger Heinze demonstrates in his
contribution, benefits from a narratologically informed adaptation studies
perspective.
As this discussion makes clear, adaptation studies needs to build on a
variety of disciplines to view convergent adaptations and franchise media
not only in their intertextual, but also in their societal framework. Factors
that come to the fore are related to social changes, changes in the structures
of production and distribution, and so forth. Literary and film studies, the
disciplines that have traditionally informed adaptation studies methodolgy,
only offer limited tools to describe and conceptualize these. To the extent
that adaptation and transmedia studies ground themselves on a cultural
materialist approach, the historical and industry transformations that production studies focuses on need to influence the direction from which we
approach adaptations in a convergent environment. 31 Approaches that already
incorporate such elements as how Hollywood industry structures impact
the shape of certain film adaptations suggests that the field can easily do so.
This Volume
The contributors to Adaptation in the Age of Media Convergence both individually and collectively expand the horizon of the fields of adaptation and
30 O’Flynn, “Designing for the Interactant,” 83.
31 Johnson, Media Franchising. Derek Johnson, “Battleworlds: The Management of Multiplicity in the Media Industries.” In World Building: Transmedia, Fans, Industries, ed. Marta Boni
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), 129–142.