Story and Film

Abstract

For anyone interested in introducing students to the phenomenon of film adaptation, the short story provides an ideal form for the theoretical discussion of how prose fiction is translated to the screen. Unlike the novel, which frequently requires the excision of elements deemed extraneous to its adaptation, a short story may demand the insertion of additional material. Since the content of most short stories is insufficient to sustain a feature film, development is required not only to transform the story’s verbal sign system into a visual sign system but possibly to expand or complicate its narrative events, characterisation, dialogue, narrative time or spatial distribution. The consequent differences between a story and its filmic version provide fertile ground for analysis and debate.