Radio drama and adaptation studies

Abstract

The introduction to this Special Issue discusses some of the key issues in radio drama adaptation and its place within the wider field of adaptation studies. These are primarily focused on the textual and the visual, rather than the aural. Little has been published on radio adaptation and that which is available mainly consists of scattered journal articles and chapters in edited collections. The critical work that does exist often discusses radio in relation to other media, rather than as a form in its own right. Radio drama has also frequently been analysed as something literary, words on a page, rather than as sound: only a few rare exceptions engage with radio adaptation on a deeper level, offering theoretical and methodological reflections. It is also regularly described as a ‘blind medium’, negating our cognitive and sensory capacity to create the images for ourselves as listeners. This collection brings together a wide range of work considering techniques of adaptation and their transformative effects on their source texts. In doing so, it hopes to lay the foundation for future research.