Screen Adaptation as Reading Transaction

This critical and creative study employs Louise Rosenblatt s Transactional Theory of Reading as a basis for critical analysis and a theoretical catalyst for creative writing. The two parts take the form of a critical essay and adapted screenplay in response to a selected short story. Various facets of Rosenblatt s theory and its place in the field of reader-response are explored in order to inform a method of reading and interpretation. Next, the body of cinema criticism concerned with the relationship between literature and film is reconsidered beyond the question of a film s fidelity to its source. Subsequently, through close reading of scenes in the novel, adapted screenplay, and film Sideways, a new view of the adaptation process is formed, based not only on the translation of word to image but also on the transferability of narrative functions between media. This interdisciplinary approach leads to the writing of a short adapted screenplay as a novel application of Rosenblatt s theory, demonstrating that the adapted screenplay is a type of criticism best understood by the reading process Rosenblatt describes. The book is intended for students and teachers of film and media.