ADAPTING TRISTRAM SHANDY by Adria Young Submitted in ...

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linear as the original; at least, as much as it can be in a particularly linear medium. Reviews of the film consistently referenced the novel’s “unfilmable” status (Ebert np). Even within the film, we see Coogan in a press interview; the interviewer asks why Coogan would tackle the “unfilmable” novel and he answers by repeating Winterbottom: “that's the attraction.” 84 But, by and large, the film received criticism for its execution. 85 Moreover, it made almost as much money in theatres as it cost to produce (Ebert np), which is considered a ‘flop’ in the film-making business. In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers not only comments on the “unfilmable” quality of the novel, but also the “unreadable” quality of the novel (Travers np), which, accidentally, speaks to the film’s success as an adaptation of the textual spirit of Tristram Shandy. But reviewers still missed Winterbottom’s point. “The notion of turning [the novel] into [a film],” Richard Corliss reviews, “raises two stubborn questions: How? and Why?” (Corliss np). In The New Yorker, Shauna Lyon critiques the “lack of formula” in Winterbottom’s “meta-film” that soon becomes “another, linear, film about the making of a film” (Lyon np). 86 Yet, Roger Ebert finds it “just as well” that the novel is “unfilmable” since it makes for an art that is “endearingly shabby” (Ebert np). Only those in the know (academics) praised the film’s meta-relationship to the text, even if viewed through a postmodern, Lyotardian lens. 87 Because the film attempts to re-create the reading experience of Tristram Shandy in a visual medium, film narrativity and film conventions are challenged or manipulated just as written narrative and print conventions are challenged by Sterne's novel, even if those challenges were largely unperceived by modern audiences; the connection between the original and adaptation is up to the viewer. 88 Because intertextuality and intermediality function through a series of cognitive 66
associations and recognitions made by the reader/viewer, this process, the connection- making, relies upon a prior knowledge of the text. 89 Yet, not even Coogan, the “leading man” and self-proclaimed “star,” has read the whole book, which comments upon the cognitive demands of the narrative (Coogan falls asleep when he tries to read the book) and gestures towards its critical reputation as an “unreadable” text. 90 We are left on our own to associate between the novel, the film, and its contexts, just as we are left to connect the narrative fragments and material manipulations of Tristram Shandy. And this attempt is guided by our expectations of narrative cohesion, especially as a cinematic convention. But these expectations are challenged by the narrative stasis within the film. David H. Richter defines narrative stasis as the “opposite of narrativity” (Richter 70). 91 We experience narrative stasis in the moments when the narrative “comes to a dead stop” and we are filled with a sense of “being somewhere as opposed to getting anywhere” (Richter 70). This is accomplished in the film through the merger of generic and cinematic conventions that operate in a hypermedial way: “Look at me! I'm a movie! Don't forget you're watching a movie!” The moments of narrative stasis, which are the various story fragments and scenes of the film that merely pass time rather than action, are cognitively joined together by the viewer to impose a linear progression toward a resolved end. But an audience seeking this pattern will be disappointed because what the film really provides is a series of multi-conventional episodes that shows the viewer that the cinematic experience of Tristam Shandy must be as hodge-podge as the novel; it must be as Shandean. By the end of the movie, we are reminded that the 'unfinished' film is an adaptation of an 'unfinished' novel. 92 Unlike most other literary adaptations, the viewer is denied typical cinematic satisfactions like a complete story or even a firm genre. Instead, 67
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ADAPTING TRISTRAM SHANDY by Adria Y
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AUTHOR: Adria Young TITLE: Adapting
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TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES v
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ABSTRACT Laurence Sterne’s The Li
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Given its r
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notion of a literal fidelity” (7)
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Cruel Intentions (Kumble 1999), and
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narrative in the same way that Ster
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CHAPTER 2: ADAPTING THE SHANDEAN Of
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The critical tradition surrounding
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digressive, and it is progressive,
Page 23 and 24: contexts and manipulated to a great
Page 25 and 26: Shandean, and are hitherto unseen t
Page 27 and 28: and sale occupied less than five pe
Page 29 and 30: (Sterne 580). Neither do we receive
Page 31 and 32: himself was dying of, and died from
Page 33 and 34: “new depth” and it was Sterne w
Page 35 and 36: Widow Wadman’s preoccupation with
Page 37 and 38: (Sterne 472), alluding to both the
Page 39 and 40: to adaptation are the method or the
Page 41 and 42: Hutcheon’ s theory effectively si
Page 43 and 44: about the act of reading the novel.
Page 45 and 46: (Weiner 17). Critics began to value
Page 47 and 48: Figure 4.Rowson's homage to Gin Lan
Page 49 and 50: work, aided by the relationship bet
Page 51 and 52: adaptation is in the “mixture of
Page 53 and 54: (Rowson np), as a reference to Joyc
Page 55 and 56: Commentary about Tristram Shandy mi
Page 57 and 58: or does not relate at all; however,
Page 59 and 60: Sentimental Journey as a textual
Page 61 and 62: Yorick is drawn as the likeness of
Page 63 and 64: spirits” (Sterne 1.1), and thus a
Page 65 and 66: Rowson also illustrates context via
Page 67 and 68: andRowson and Pete are drawn in a p
Page 69 and 70: we are aware that we are watching a
Page 71 and 72: critically approached. Fidelity as
Page 73: critical interpretation (what ideol
Page 77 and 78: etween chapters and volumes (just a
Page 79 and 80: fictionalized autobiography, and Wi
Page 81 and 82: cutting room floor (even though we
Page 83 and 84: fucking camera! He can be emotional
Page 85 and 86: at “realism.” Coogan replies,
Page 87 and 88: [Al] Pacino stand in for [David] Ga
Page 89 and 90: properties of different media make
Page 91 and 92: modes and conventions. On the abstr
Page 93 and 94: fictional autobiography, a military
Page 95 and 96: Figure 21: The final page of Rowson
Page 97 and 98: 11 Even this is tricky, and potenti
Page 99 and 100: 36 See Melvyn New. “Job’s Wife
Page 101 and 102: 59 Sterne had many Modern and Postm
Page 103 and 104: 86 That is, the “lack of formula
Page 105 and 106: � Bibliography Allen, Dennis W.
Page 107 and 108: Noble, 1978. Print. Corliss, Richar
Page 109 and 110: Joyce Goggin and Dan Hassler-Forres
Page 111 and 112: Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adapta
Page 113 and 114: McFarlane, Brian. “Part I: Backgr
Page 115 and 116: ---------- “Interview with Alex F
Page 117: University of Adelaide, 2011. Web.
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