Adaptation and American Studies

As Linda Hutcheon writes in her afterword, this volume featuring contributions from scholars, teachers, and artists working in Canada, the United States, and Germany demonstrates "the manifest popularity" and "the 'ubiquity' of adaptation as a contemporary cultural phenomenon - albeit one with roots going deep into the past." The opening theoretical essay shows how the interdisciplinary and global field of adaptation studies intersects with the transnational cultural studies trajectory within American studies. The volume probes the depths of narratives that have shuttled between multiple genres, cultures, languages, and eras, and highlights concerns shared by research and teaching. It includes and, in several instances, combines the perspectives of artists who practice adaptation, of researchers who analyze and contextualize adaptation, and of instructors who teach adaptation processes or use adaptation as a didactic tool.