Knowra Adaptation (arts) Adaptation (arts) An adaptation transforms a work from one artistic medium or form into another. It reshapes material to fit the expressive possibilities and constraints of its new form.
Intermediality : The study and practice of relations among distinct media and art forms. Adaptation is one way works cross the boundaries that intermediality examines.
The Seven Samurai : Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film about villagers hiring samurai to defend them from bandits. Its central premise was recast as a Western in The Magnificent Seven.
Remake : A new version of an existing film or other work, usually in the same medium. A remake revisits a work without necessarily crossing artistic media.
Authorship : The creation and attribution of a work to one or more makers. Adaptation complicates authorship by combining the source creator’s material with new creative decisions.
Transmedia storytelling : A narrative distributed across multiple media, with each medium contributing distinct material. Unlike a direct adaptation, it expands a story across media rather than retelling it.
The Magnificent Seven : A 1960 Western directed by John Sturges about gunfighters defending a Mexican village. It relocates The Seven Samurai’s conflict and social world to the American West.
Retelling : A new telling of an existing story, often with altered perspective, setting, or emphasis. Retellings can be adaptations, but the term does not require a change of medium.
Copyright : A legal framework granting creators control over specified uses of their original works. Many adaptations require permission because they transform protected source material.
Remediation : The representation of one medium within another, often through reuse or transformation. Adaptations can make an earlier medium’s forms visible inside a later one.
West Side Story : A musical retelling of Romeo and Juliet set amid rival groups in 1950s New York. It transforms Shakespearean tragedy through music, dance, and a modern urban setting.
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