Kenyon-Owen Stephen
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Mandatory Layout of Declaration/Statements Word Count of thesis: 83,246 (incl. bibliography & appendices) DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Candidate name Stephen C. Kenyon-Owen Signature: Date 1st June 2018 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where *correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signature: Date 1st June 2018 [*this refers to the extent to which the text has been corrected by others] STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signature: Date 1st June 2018 NB: Candidates on whose behalf a bar on access (hard copy) has been approved by the University should use the following version of Statement 2: I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access approved by Aberystwyth University. Signature: N/A Date N/A 1 This summary sheet should be completed after you have read the guidance notes. The completed sheet should be submitted by you to your Department/School/Institute at the time of submission of your work and the supporting documentation. Candidate’s Surname/Family Name Kenyon-Owen Candidate’s Forenames (in full) Stephen Craig Candidate for the Degree of PhD Academic year the work submitted for examination 2017-2018 Summary: Borderlines: the changing limits of textual encounters. This thesis focuses upon storytelling, examining processes of use and interaction as texts transform and migrate through medial boundaries. It aims to excavate new ways of considering the adapted text, and how theory may inform practice (and vice-versa) to produce an intermedial weave of both text and theoretical approach. The methodology is multidisciplinary, encompassing: adaptation studies, art, installation works, and convergent media, with analysis observing how these critical areas connect and intersect. The affordances each specific media provides is considered whilst also acknowledging that medial boundaries flex, being ‘indeterminate and flexible relative to surrounding environments’, or use.1 I examine points of connection between text, media and user, and ask ‘what that space, that necessary difference, enables’, in the manner of how we explore, view, and navigate ever-shifting adaptational frameworks.2 The text here is considered as being in motion, as it morphs into new forms and moves across textual borderlines. It is this aspect of cross-pollination, or textual blend occurring through media, that is the focus of the thesis. 1 Christa Albrecht-Crane and Dennis Cutchins, ‘Introduction: New Beginnings for Adaptation Studies’, in Christa Albrecht-Crane, Dennis Cutchins, eds, Adaptation Studies: New Approaches (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, U.S., 2010), pp.16-22 (p.21). 2 Albrecht-Crane and Cutchins, p.20. 2 Borderlines: the changing limits of textual encounters Stephen C. Kenyon-Owen A thesis submitted to Aberystwyth University in fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Literature and Creative Writing June 2018 3 Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................. 6 Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter One - Adaptive approaches ................................................................................................. 10 Orpheus: analogue ................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter summaries .................................................................................................................. 21 Chapter Two - Severed Voices ........................................................................................................ 27 The Orpheus Project ................................................................................................................ 28 Of rescue and beheading .......................................................................................................... 31 Silent singer ............................................................................................................................. 36 Miscellany & violations ........................................................................................................... 43 Orpheus, the lost and broken thing ........................................................................................... 49 An object that you find ............................................................................................................ 51 Archive.................................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter Three - The Tales We Tell ................................................................................................... 62 Space/Place ............................................................................................................................. 65 [Frame]works .......................................................................................................................... 70 Writing the environment .......................................................................................................... 76 Bleeding at the edge ................................................................................................................. 89 Time and memory .................................................................................................................... 94 Edges severed ........................................................................................................................ 104 Beyond Orpheus .................................................................................................................... 108 Last call ................................................................................................................................. 111 Summonings and transitions .................................................................................................. 115 Crossing the threshold............................................................................................................ 120 Time at halt ........................................................................................................................... 124 Harmonic discord .................................................................................................................. 127 Between borders .................................................................................................................... 130 Chapter Four – Steps and progression ............................................................................................ 136 He played a straight game. ..................................................................................................... 139 The faux-event ....................................................................................................................... 144 The blended text .................................................................................................................... 148 The Event Tree ...................................................................................................................... 154 The blank form ...................................................................................................................... 159 The single path ...................................................................................................................... 161 The absurdly hybrid ............................................................................................................... 167 Chapter Five – Archiving Loss ...................................................................................................... 175 4 Not a question, but a command .............................................................................................. 179 Mechanical subversions ......................................................................................................... 185 This notion that nobody is thinking about you, and do you exist at all? ................................... 192 Hand.Cannot.Erase. ............................................................................................................... 198 Endgame ............................................................................................................................... 201 Chapter Six – Orpheus Remixed .................................................................................................... 203 Lyre Economics ..................................................................................................................... 205 Splice the text ........................................................................................................................ 211 Orpheus Broadcast ................................................................................................................