Transcultural Film Adaptations as Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Abstract

This article explores a transcultural film adaptation, offerinf new avenues for discussing cross-cultural dialog. The article analyzes the transcultural adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, written by Boris Pasternak. The book was adapted in 1965 by British director David Lean, who cooperated with one of the largest American film studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This work considers the changing meaning of the text, which enters a new national culture, and explores how Pasternak’s novel was changed to fit the new audience. Lean’s adaptation of Doctor Zhivago is analyzed as a dialogue of different cultures, which involve the “Hollywoodization” of Russian literature. The author emphasizes the intertextual and cultural dialogism of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago and David Lean’s 1965 film adaptation. The film adaptation inserts the novel into much broader dialogic relations, for example, with movies of a specific era, their cinematic technics, and ideologies.