Iranian Adaptation and Narrative Transformation with Special Attention to Amir Naderi’s Adaptation of Sadeq Chubak’s Tangsir

Abstract

This paper, while focused primarily on the narrative transformation of Sadeq Chubak’s Tangsir from novel to film adaptation, offers a general survey of adaptation history in Iran and also investigates the nature of Iranian adaptation from both foreign and domestic sources. Drawing on Gerard Genette’s theories of Narratology, especially his notion of hypertextuality, transpragmatization and transdiegetization, we would discuss the changes made to the hypotextual story from a narratological perspective. This paper strives to demonstrate how adaptations of foreign and domestic sources vary, in that adaptations of foreign sources tend to incline towards diegetic transposition, which entails changes to time and setting and conversely domestic sources lend themselves more to pragmatic transpositions, most of which tend to change and modify certain plot elements for aesthetic and/or socio-political reasons which consequently change or dramatically expand the thematic aspects of the story. The current research investigates both divergences and convergences of the narrative elements of the story such as narrator, point of view, perspective, plot and characterization in a comparative manner between the two mediums, trying to uncover the reasons for narrative transformations. This study also proposes the term director/editor for film directors, who in their adaptations of literary works recline heavily on pragmatic transpositional processes.