Adaptations of the Biography and Works of Joseph Conrad in Contemporary Culture (2022)
Summary:
Adaptations seem to be ubiquitous in contemporary culture. Theoretically, the notion of adaptation has evolved from issues concerning solely film adaptations of literary works to all kinds of transformations of a given work into another artistic form. This volume addresses adaptations in a broad sense, which can include films, theatrical performances, radio plays, graphic novels, comic books, video games and even theme parks. While most authors assume that the literary work is the primary source of adaptation, I point out that biography ― or rather biographical constructs ― have also become cultural texts in their own right and ― like literary texts ― can be subject to adaptation. Because of the variety and sometimes divergence of definitions of adaptation, the book discusses selected approaches of Western and Polish scholars, including Kamilla Elliott, following whom I have adopted a general definition of adaptation as a process of repetition with a difference. Another important assumption of my book is the rejection of the criterion of fidelity to evaluate adaptation. This is because the validity of using this criterion is currently being questioned by many contemporary theorists such as Linda Hutcheon and John Ellis, who insists that the purpose of adaptation is not to faithfully reproduce the content of the original, because “Adaptation exploits the memory of the novel, a memory that may arise from actual reading, or, as is more likely in the case of literary classics, from the general cultural circulation of memory” of that work. Adaptation absorbs this memory, seeking to erase it by offering new images of its own. Thus, a successful adaptation is one that is able to replace the cultural memory of a novel with a new cinematic or television representation of it. Particularly relevant to my methodological approach in this study is Ellis’s observation about the general cultural circulation of the memory of certain cultural texts, since ― as I show in the case of several adaptations ― their authors do not draw directly on the original, but rather refer to and use the cultural memory of a given story that has already been processed in other cultural texts. This in turn constitutes an example of yet another understanding of adaptation processes regarded as “collaborations” of multiple users of culture (Julie Sanders).
The biography of Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski constitutes rich material for a screenplay ― not only for a stage play or a feature-length film, but also for a longer television series, in which sensational plots overlap with adventures and dramatic events (including love stories) interweave with comedic ones. It comes as no surprise, then, that many writers, playwrights, film-makers and artists have tapped into this arsenal of motifs, choosing their favourite episodes and fleshing them out or dramatizing them to transform them in their own works. While the use of literature as a basis for film and theatre adaptations is nothing new, drawing on Conrad’s life could be regarded as a novelty. I am not referring here to traditional television series or non-fiction books based on his biography (which try to faithfully reflect the writer’s life story), but to the use of his biography as literary material. The key methodological assumption of this book is the approach to biography as a cultural text, which is subject to creative processing (adaptation) by artists.
The work distinguishes three ways in which contemporary artists can creatively use Conrad’s figure: focusing exclusively on his biography, combining his biography and works and concentrating only on his works. The volume consists of four chapters, an appendix, bibliography and an index of names and subjects. It contains 58 illustrations and 9 diagrams. In chapter one, I analyze visual forms of adaptation divided into three categories. In the first part, I discuss the graphic novels “Heart of Darkness” by Catherine Anyango and David Z. Mairowitz and “Kongo” by Tom Tirabosco and Christian Perrissin, which use Joseph Conrad’s biography to interpret the novella; in the second part, I present adaptations of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” by Peter Kuper and “Au coeur des ténèbres” by Stephane Miquel and Loic Godart, which focus mainly on the novella. The third part is devoted to the Polish comic “The Amazing Tales of Joseph Conrad” by Łukasz Godlewski and Maciej Jasiński, which interweaves the writer’s biography with his various works.
The second chapter focuses on literary adaptations, transformations and appropriations of Conrad’s works in particular. Again, I begin with “Heart of Darkness”, which was adapted by Jacek Dukaj for Polish readers in the post-literary era. Next, I discuss the use of the figure of Joseph Conrad and his works to create the world presented in “Dżozef” by Jakub Małecki. The chapter closes with an analysis of the processing of Conrad?s short story “Duel” in Eustachy Rylski’s novel “Condition”, based on the theoretical assumptions of hauntology.
Chapter three is devoted to theatrical and film adaptations of Conrad’s biography and works. I analyse Ingmar Villqist’s play “Conrad”, paying attention to its anniversary-related genesis, followed by Tomasz Man’s play “Wyspiański/Conrad”, read as a dramatic text which has not yet been fully staged, but only presented to an audience during a performative reading in the Drama Laboratory of the Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw. In the last part I discuss Harold Pinter’s screenplay based on his novel “Victory” and its radio broadcast on BBC radio.
In the conclusion, I discuss the presence of the Conrad figure in the context of contemporary branding and I search for an answer to the question as to whether there is a “Conrad” brand in contemporary Polish culture, as well as what factors facilitate the building of a strong brand (and, consequently, what actions should be taken to build a recognizable “Conrad” brand in Polish culture). As an appendix, I present an analysis of contemporary translations of “Heart of Darkness” by Jędrzej Polak, Barbara Koc, Magda Heydel and Patrycja Jabłońska. Although I do not deal with translations in this book, many parts of the volume analyse transformations of this very novella; it therefore seems justified for the reader to become acquainted with different (and sometimes divergent) versions of this novella functioning in distinct ways in Polish culture. The analyses I carry out ultimately show that not only the writer’s works, but also his biography understood as a cultural text remain present in contemporary culture, constituting an attractive and abundant source of adaptation.
