The Theory And Practice Of Adaptation In Robert Stam's Introduction To Literature And Film

In Robert Stam’s introduction to Literature and Film, titled “The Theory and Practice of Adaptation,” he addresses and discusses the numerous differences, limits, and elements of adaptation in film and the source novel. One of the topics in theory that he discusses towards the end of the introduction is the “point of view” and its impact on adaptation. Stam claims that when discussing “point of view” in the context of an adaptation issues will arise due to the instability of the term as it transforms into cinematic vocabulary and takes on meaning in the context of the camera. I would like to go a different angle than he does, and claim that this label, however, is not a limiting factor in adaptation; rather it is an expansive component that is when adapted and portrayed properly can give the camera human-like qualities causing the audience to feel like they are uncovering the true characters of the story (the source novel) through …show more content…
She gains traction on her position by looking at the conventional point of view in Hitchcock 's films where there is often a shot of a character looking at something off-screen immediately followed by a shot of something the character fancies to see but is not physically able to at the particular moment. She notes how these types of point of view shots develop an emotional relationship with the audience s they too feel the desires the characters do. She therefore is highlighting the other point of Stam’s, that being the emotional stance of point-of-view that is adapted from a source