Adaptation – Remediation – Transmediality

Abstract

Textual elements, especially narratives and characters, can move from one media system to another, and media often refer to other media. This chapter focuses on adaptation, remediation and transmediality as three closely interrelated concepts. Adaptations raise questions concerning their media transfer but also concerning their contexts. Foregrounding the mediality of media, the concept of remediation describes how media adapt other media and absorb them into their media logic. Transmediality, finally, refers to the practice of telling a story in several media. Transmedia storytelling, which has become widespread and popular in the context of the new digital media, develops narratives across a variety of media platforms in order to allow its recipients to explore different aspects of their plots, characters and story-worlds. In order to apply the theoretical concerns at stake in these concepts, this chapter will offer a close analysis of Baz Luhrmann’s postmodern adaptation William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996). Key Terms: Adaptation, remediation, transmediality, transmedia storytelling, hypermediacy, intertextuality, recycling, postmodernism, William Shakespeare, Baz Luhrmann