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Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about television adaptations can be found in many publications. Our collection has one journal that looks exclusively at adaptations of all types and it is called Adaptation. You can use Film & Television Literature Index or the search box at the top of the page to find articles.
Adaptation: the journal of literature on screen studiesCall Number: Electronic journalThis journal contains several articles on television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare survey by Call Number: Electronic journalShakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Each yearbook focuses on a specific play, aspect or adapting the works to film, television or radio.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about television adaptations.
Keeping up with the journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.
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Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.
A definition for 'Adaptation'
A pre-existing work that has been made into a film. Adaptations are often of literary or theatrical works, but musical theatre, best-selling fiction and non-fiction, comic books, computer games, children’s toys, and so on have also been regularly adapted for the cinema. Adaptations of well-known literary and theatrical texts were common in the silent era (see silent cinema; costume drama; epic film; history film) and have been a staple of virtually all national cinemas through the 20th and 21st centuries. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories (1887–1927) have been adapted in a range of national contexts but probably the most adapted author is Shakespeare, whose plays have appeared in film form as a large-budget Hollywood musical (West Side Story (Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, US, 1961)), a historical epic set in feudal Japan (Kumonosu-jo/Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1957)), a Bollywood musical (Angoor (Gulzar, India, 1982)), and a children’s animation (The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, US, 1994)), to name but a few. Adaptations often sit within cycles associated with a particular time and place, as with the British heritage film in the 1980s (see cycle). It is claimed that adaptations account for up to 50 per cent of all Hollywood films and are consistently rated amongst the highest grossing at the box office, as aptly demonstrated by the commercial success of recent adaptations of the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Other varied US adaptations include: computer games (Resident Evil (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2002)), graphic novels (Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)), comic books (The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012)); see also cinematic universe; superhero film), and children’s toys (Transformers: The Last Knight (Michael Bay, 2017)). A number of films also display a certain level of self-reflexivity regarding the process of adaptation, as can be seen in Adaptation (Spike Jonze, US, 2002) and The LEGO Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2012). A property ripe for adaptation is referred to as pre-sold; older works in particular are attractive to film producers because they are often out of copyright (see Deal, the). ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Adaptation. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 May. 2023
In the Library's collections
The following are useful subject headings for searching the online catalog. The books on adapting source materials for films are shelved in the call number range PN 1997.85 on Baker Level 4.
- shakespeare william 1564 1616 television adaptationsThis is an example subject search for adaptations for a specific author.
- television plays techniqueBooks on this subject are in the call number range PN 1996 on Baker Level 4.
- television authorshipBooks about television authorship are shelved in PN 1992.7 or PN 1996 on Baker Level 4.
Introductory reading(s)
The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare on screen by Call Number: Baker-Berry PR 3093 .C363 2020ISBN: 9781108431552The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Screen provides a lively guide to film and television productions adapted from Shakespeare's plays. Offering an essential resource for students of Shakespeare, the companion considers topics such as the early history of Shakespeare films, the development of 'live' broadcasts from theatre to cinema, the influence of promotion and marketing, and the range of versions available in 'world cinema'. ...
The classic serial on television and radio by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1992.3 .G7 G44 2001ISBN: 9780333713884The classic serial, invented by BBC Radio Drama sixty years ago, survived and adapted itself to television, the arrival of colour and the global market in what has become a flood of classics with all channels competing for ratings and overseas sales. This richly detailed book traces these developments and analyses the genre's response to social, economic, technical and cultural changes, which have re-shaped it into the form we recognise today. The book contains considerable interview material with performers and media professionals.
Remake television: reboot, re-use, recycle by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780739183335Remakes are pervasive in today's popular culture, whether they take the form of reboots, "re-imaginings," or overly familiar sequels. Television remakes have proven popular with producers and networks interested in building on the nostalgic capital of past successes (or giving a second chance to underused properties). Some TV remakes have been critical and commercial hits, and others haven't made it past the pilot stage; all have provided valuable material ripe for academic analysis. In Remake Television: Reboot, Re-use, Recycle contributors from a variety of backgrounds offer multicultural, multidisciplinary perspectives on remake themes in popular television series, from classic cult favorites such as The Avengers (1961-69) and The X-Files (1993-2002) to current hits like Doctor Who (2005-present) and The Walking Dead (2010-present).
Small-screen Shakespeare by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781443846547Small-Screen Shakespeare is a guide to all the Shakespeare productions available for viewing on computer or TV. From Beerbohm Tree's silent scene from King John, to Helen Mirren as Prospera and Simon Russell Beale as Falstaff, Peter Cochran gives an expert opinion on the best and the worst, basing his judgements on a lifetime of viewing, teaching, acting and directing. The book covers films, television productions, plays on YouTube, and DVDs of videoed stage productions, as well as cinematic Shakespearean spin-offs such as Throne of Blood and Joe Macbeth. ...
Selected book title(s)
Adapting science fiction to television: small screen, expanded universe by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1992.8 .T45 S39 2015ISBN: 9781442252691Before it reached television, science fiction existed on the printed page, in comic books, and on movie screens for decades. Adapting science fiction to the new medium posed substantial challenges: Small viewing screens and limited production facilities made it difficult to achieve the sense of wonder that had become the genre's hallmark. Yet, television also offered unprecedented opportunities. Its serial nature allowed for longer, more complex stories, as well as developing characters and building suspense over time. ...
Almost Shakespeare: reinventing his works for cinema and television by Call Number: Baker-Berry PR 3093 .A46 2004ISBN: 9780786419098In the past two decades, Othello has tried out for the basketball team, Macbeth has taken over a fast food joint and King Lear has moved to an Iowa farm--Shakespeare is everywhere in popular culture. This collection of essays addresses the use of Shakespearean narratives, themes, imagery and characterizations in non-Shakespearian cinema. The essays explore how Shakespeare and his work are manipulated within the popular media and explore topics such as racism, jealousy, misogyny and nationality. The submissions concentrate on film and television programs that are adaptations of Shakespearean plays, including My Own Private Idaho, CSI-Miami, A Thousand Acres, Prospero's Books, O, 10 Things I Hate About You, Withnail and I, Get Over It, and The West Wing. ...
Chaucer on screen: absence, presence, and adapting the Canterbury tales by Call Number: Baker-Berry PR 1872 .C47 2016ISBN: 9780814253724Unlike William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and other great authors who have enjoyed continued success in Hollywood, Geoffrey Chaucer has largely been shunted to the margins of the cinematic world. Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales investigates the various translations of Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales to film and television, tracing out how the legacies of the great fourteenth-century English poet have been revisited and reinterpreted through visual media.
A history of Shakespeare on screen: a century of film and television by Call Number: Baker-Berry PR 3093 .R67 2004ISBN: 9780521543118A History of Shakespeare on Screen chronicles how film-makers have re-imagined Shakespeare's plays from the earliest exhibitions in music halls and nickelodeons to today's multi-million dollar productions shown in megaplexes. ...
Who is Sherlock?: essays on identity in modern Holmes adaptations by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S5 W56 2016ISBN: 9780786499076Nearly 130 years after the introduction of Sherlock Holmes to readers, the Great Detective's identity is being questioned, deconstructed, and reconstructed more than ever. Readers and audiences, not to mention scholars and critics, continue to analyze who Sherlock Holmes is or has become and why and how his identity has been formed in a specific way.
Wuthering Heights on film and television : a journey across time and cultures by Call Number: Baker/Berry PR 4172 .W73 H429 2015ISBN: 9781783204922Emily Brontë's beloved novel Wuthering Heights has been adapted countless times for film and television over the decades. Valérie V.Hazette offers here a historical and transnational study of those adaptations, presenting the afterlife of the book as a series of cultural journeys that focuses as much on the readers, filmmakers, and viewers as on the dramas themselves. ...
Other library resource(s)
Adaptation from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Studies of cinematic adaptations—films based, as the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences puts it, on material originally presented in another medium—are scarcely a century old. Even so, particular studies of adaptation, the process by which texts in a wide range of media are transformed into films (and more recently into other texts that are not necessarily films), cannot be properly understood without reference to the specific period they were produced in. ...- Shakespeare on film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286In the 1980s the study of cinema adaptations of Shakespeare was transformed by the advent of domestic video recording and the increased availability of productions on videotape. Students, teachers, and scholars who had previously relied on public showings or the hire of 16mm prints could now access films in the study or at home as well as in libraries and, crucially, could also view them repeatedly and shot-by-shot without specialized equipment. The volume of publication of academic monographs, journal articles, critical anthologies, and study aids has kept pace with the increasing availability of older films, as well as new productions. ...
Shakespeare uncovered by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #17780ISBN: 9781608838530Six episodes combine history, biography, iconic performances, new analysis, and the personal passion of their celebrated hosts (Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Irons, Derek Jacobi, Trevor Nunn, Joely Richardson, and David Tennant) to tell the story behind the stories of Shakespeare's greatest plays.
Shakespeare uncovered. Series 2 by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #20283ISBN: 9781627892377Six celebrated hosts to tell the stories behind the stories of Shakespeare's greatest plays, revealing not just the elements in the play, but the history of the play itself. What sparked the creation of each of these works? Where did Shakespeare get his plots, and what cultural, political and religious factors influenced his writing? Why has this body of work endured so thoroughly? What, in the end, makes Shakespeare so great?
Adapted TV programs
Here is a short list of adapted television located in the Jones Media Center or available through streaming. Check the online catalog for more titles.
The hollow crown. The complete seriesCall Number: Jones Media DVD #16838The Hollow Crown is a new adaptation of Shakespeare's tetralogy of history plays comprising the Henriad for the BBC's 2012 Cultural Olympiad: King Richard II; King Henry IV, Part 1; King Henry IV, Part 2; King Henry V. The plays chronicle a continuous period in British history from the end of the 14th century to the aftermath of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Together, the plays comprise a story with recurring themes of power struggles, redemption, family conflict and betrayal.
The hollow crown. The war of the rosesCall Number: Jones Media DVD #20279The concluding cycle of The Hollow Crown, subtitled The Wars of the Roses. Henry VI, Parts I and II and Richard III tell the story of an exceptionally turbulent period in British history. These exhilarating and emotionally charged films feature some of Shakespeare's most eloquent and powerful language.- Pericles, Prince of Tyre byCall Number: Streaming videoWhen Pericles discovers the terrible answer to King Antiochus' riddle, he flees for his life. In self exile from Tyre, he encounters famine, shipwreck, love and fatherhood ... but in his desire to return home, he once again jeopardises his life and those he loves.
- ShakespeaRe-told. Much ado about nothing byCall Number: Streaming videoSet in a local news studio, with Beatrice and Benedick as feuding anchors. Hero, the weathergirl and daughter of station manager Leonard, becomes engaged to Claude, the sports presenter. Jealous visual effects manager Don plots to break up Hero and Claude, whilst the others attempt to get Beatrice and Benedick together. Hero and Claude eventually repair their friendship, though Hero refuses to consider marriage again, the ending is left ambiguous about their future as they are the best man and maid of honour (respectively) for the finale: the wedding of Beatrice and Benedick.
William Shakespeare's Twelfth night; MacbethCall Number: Jones Media DVD #7071ISBN: 9780780029682Twelfth Night: the adaptation is set in contemporary London. Macbeth: the adaptation is set in a timeless zone somewhere in the twentieth century against a raw, urban industrial environment.
Internet resource(s)
- The 50 greatest literary TV adaptations ever, ranked from Literary HubI don’t know about you, but a lot of my favorite television shows used to be books. By now, it’s a cliché (and definitely unnecessary) to point out how often great movies and television shows are based on literary properties, but I have to point it out to get on to the next, also obvious bit: the fact that some of them are better than others. Which is why, following several heated discussions in the Literary Hub office, I have decided to rank them. ...