Raincoat: Appropriation, Intermedial Translation and the Non-Manichean Adaptation of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi

Dr. Kusumika Sarkar

doi:10.53724/ambition/v8n3.07

Authors

Dr. Kusumika Sarkar Assistant professor, Women's college, Aligarh Muslim University (India). https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1919-8923

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53724/ambition/v8n3.07

Keywords:

Adaptation, Appropriation, Intermedial translation, Self-censorship, non-Manichean predicament, ideology

Abstract

The area of adaptation has always remained a ground of contest and conflict especially when there is appropriation and inter-medial translation influenced by culture. This paper is based on the film Raincoat, which is an adaptation of O. Henry’s well-known short story The Gift of the Magi. The change of setting as well as social relations, has raised the necessity of certain appropriations in the adaptation. Change in social relations forces the characters to be self-censored at every step, in every action. Yet, their social relationship can hardly censor the personal affection they share for one another. The intermedial translation of the silence, the unexplained actions and the unquestioned identification of certain characters reflect their ideologies as representatives of a particular culture. The objective of this paper is primarily to analyse this appropriation, which demands the characters’ denial to overthrow the social matrix. In the course of the study, this paper also aims to observe the inter-medial translations which, although shape the adaptation as an ‘analogy’, maintain a Non-Manichean predicament.

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Author Biography

Dr. Kusumika Sarkar, Assistant professor, Women's college, Aligarh Muslim University (India).

Assistant professor, Women's college, Aligarh Muslim University (India).

References

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Mukherjee, Akaitab. "From O. Henry’s 'The Gift of the Magi' to Rituparno Ghosh’s Raincoat: Transcultural Adaptation and Film Authorship." Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 40, no. 1, 2023, pp. 1-15.