Entanglements of Intermediality

Abstract

Abstract Working on intermediality from a historical and comparative perspective, this chapter analyses codependency and cross-fertilisation between examples drawn from screen culture, the stage, and broadcasting. It derives from an intermedial research project, “Pinter Histories and Legacies,” that documented Harold Pinter’s work on the stage, radio, and television and in cinema, thus tracing historiographic connections between media, across chronologies, between Pinter’s life and his work, and between Pinter and numerous other creative figures and their output. The chapter uses Pinter as the common thread between Roman Polanski’s film Cul de Sac, Pinter’s play The Birthday Party, and the BBC TV sitcom Steptoe and Son. This investigation leads to a methodological debate about the limits of intermedial methodologies and argues for historicisation in intermedial studies.