ADAPTING TRISTRAM SHANDY by Adria Young Submitted in ...

manipulates the conventions within which it functions. To adapt Tristram Shandy, then,
all of these elements of the text have to be retained to make the transfer to new media
identifiably Shandean. The Shandean elements of the text operate on the conceptual level
of adaptation, because it is the “spirit” of the work that is recognizable in the adaptation,
and not always the work itself. Thus, for a text that is apparently impossible to adapt,
there are two successful adaptations of Tristram Shandy that adhere to this method of
adaptation because it is the only way to represent the spirit of the text. To adapt Tristram
Shandy is to remediate the original qualities of the novel into a new medium.Thus, the
unadaptable and “unfilmable” (Voigts-Virchow 149) experimental novel is adapted into a
graphic novel and film in the conceptual, Shandean way.
In the first chapter, I pursue a definition of the Shandean, which, I suggest, is a
series of combined qualities that convey the Shandean sense of things: experimentation,
conversation, and titillation. Sterne's play with conventions, identities, and criticisms, the
convergence of the visual and the textual, and the good humour at the heart of Tristram's
jokes are elements of Tristram Shandy that make the text exuberantly unique. These
qualities can be adapted into a new medium, and indeed, only in a new medium would a
Shandean adaptation succeed. By situating Shandyism as the spirit of the text, we can see
how the graphic novel adaptation and the film adaptation of Tristram Shandy are true to
that Shandean spirit of artistic creation.
In the second chapter, I explore the ways that Rowson adapts Tristram Shandy as
a graphic novel. Since the conventions of the genre prohibit a direct transfer, Rowson
experiments with comic book conventions to recreate the Shandean sense of self-
reflexivity and self-awareness. Rowson manipulates the conventions of comic book
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