The Pleasure of the Intertext: Towards a Cognitive Poetics of Adaptation
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!1 THE PLEASURE OF THE INTERTEXT: TOWARDS A COGNITIVE POETICS OF ADAPTATION A dissertation presented by Meg Tarquinio to The Department of English In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of English Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts April, 2017 !2 THE PLEASURE OF THE INTERTEXT: TOWARDS A COGNITIVE POETICS OF ADAPTATION by Meg Tarquinio ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Northeastern University April, 2017 !3 ABSTRACT The field of adaptation studies has been diagnosed as lacking consensus around its main tenets, especially those that would build a strong ontological foundation. This study participates in the burgeoning critical approach that places cognitive science in conversation with literary theory, looking towards the start of a cognitive turn in adaptation studies. Specifically, I offer the axiom that adaptations are analogies. In other words, I advance the original argument that adaptations are the textual expression of the cognitive function of analogy. Here, I’m using a cognitive theory of analogy as the partial mapping of knowledge (objects and relations) from a source domain to a target domain. From this vantage point, I reassess the theoretical tensions and analytical practices of adaptation studies. For instance, the idea of essence is an anathema within academic studies of adaptation, yet it continues to hold sway within popular discourse. My approach allows for a productive return to essence, not as some mystical quality inherent in an original text and then indescribably transmitted to its adaptation, but as the expression of a key sub-process of analogical reasoning – what Douglas Hofstadter refers to, conveniently, as “essence” or “gist extraction.” This line of argument demonstrates the degree to which André Bazin’s 1948 theorization of adaptation is in line with this cognitive version of essence. In so doing, it valorizes an alternative genealogy of criticism that looks to French cinematic theory and Russian formalism in lieu of the infamously problematic American line of evaluative adaptation criticism noted to have begun with George Bluestone’s 1957 Novels into Film. Following this redress of the field, I offer two case studies that put my theory into practice and explore this renewed theoretical landscape. They stand as the kinds of readings !4 supported by a cognitive model and framework – both work to establish a dense network of alignable similarities between my designated source texts (or domains) and target works. A key element of the theory present in both chapters is the structuring of intertextuality – the privileged source to target relationship (which I term the adaptive dominant) that functions to pull in other outside texts in service of that primary systematic mapping. The first study addresses D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover as an adaptive work. While this novel has served as the source text for numerous adaptations, my chapter takes the novel as its target text. In the 90 years since its publication, the novel has never been discussed as an adaptation in this way. The primary source text I examine in my chapter is Lawrence’s own Etruscan Places. The second study examines Radiohead’s In Rainbows as a dual adaptation of Faust, first mapping the album to a cultural source domain and then to its artistic (or literary) source domain. The first approach builds on my theory chapter’s discussion of the career of analogy and adaptation, which traces the evolutionary path of analogies and adaptations from novel and unfamiliar to conventional and well-known. Traversing this path entails a shift in mode of mapping from comparison to categorization as analogies and adaptations are conventionalized. Ultimately, these close or adaptive/analogical readings illustrate how an understanding of the cognitive processes underlying both the creation and consumption of adaptations may inform our criticism of the form and function of adaptation. !5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation owes its existence to the generous guidance and support of cherished friends, family, and faculty members. I would like to thank my amazing advisor, Professor Kathleen Kelly, for her steadfast support and invaluable wisdom – from my first moments and courses in the PhD program to the completion of this work and beyond. Her mentorship, scholarship, and kindness are an inspiration. To Professor Inez Hedges, thank you also for inspiring, guiding, and supporting my pursuit of cinema studies throughout my coursework, comprehensive exams, and this dissertation – and for igniting my love of, and insatiable curiosity around, Faust. To Professor Janet Randall, thank you for exposing me to the methods, structure, and knowledge of linguistics and for your honest and insightful contribution to, and care for, my work and process. I feel incredibly grateful for you all. It was a pleasure and honor to be able to work with, and learn from, such a supportive committee, whose scholarship I greatly admire. I have worked full time throughout the entire writing of, and research for, this dissertation, which would not have been possible without the support of my family. To Kristine Tarquinio, thank you for gifting a fifth grader with War & Peace, for reading Little Women to us from the hallway at bedtime (and then taking me to see the film adaptation in theaters, years later), for sharing your love of literature and art and music, and for always being there throughout everything. To Agapito Tarquinio, thank you for my Etruscan legacy � , for humoring (and enjoying) our numerous visits to the tombs !6 at Tarquinia, and for your unwavering positivity and support. To Lisa Tarquinio, thank you for the tough love that got me on track, the insightful discussions that moved my work forward, and the deep friendship that keeps me going. To Alessandro Tarquinio, thank you for your indulgence in my random calls for distraction, for your visits, and for your shining example. To Tabitha Kenlon, your friendship has kept me afloat. I’ll never forget the reading of your own acknowledgements in my tiny NYC studio, our weekend Boston- Dubai Skype calls, our work (and hangout) sessions in your Back Bay abode, that windy yet wonderful trip to Marblehead all those Aprils ago, and your boundless kindness and unwavering aid. Thank you to Shannon Garner-Balandrin, Duyen Nguyen, and Genie Giaimo, for your game-changing support and friendship. To my incredible friends and coworkers, especially Boris Araya, Angela Bermas, Christina Choi, Carolina Corral, Sarah Gainer, Amalia Stankavage Dillin, and Natalie Tulluch, thank you for seeing me through. Jordan… Your unparalleled, unconditional love is everything. This is dedicated to you. !7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 5 Table of Contents 7 List of Figures & Images 10 Introduction 11 Adaptation Studies: A Diagnostic 12 Cognitive Studies: A Case for Analogy 14 Cognitive Approaches to the Arts 14 The Study of Analogy in Cognitive Science 15 A Case for Ontology & Formalism 18 Part I: Analogy as the Core of Adaptation Section Abstract 21 The Pleasure of the Intertext 22 This is Your Brain on Adaptation 22 Spoiler Alert! Spoilers Don’t Spoil Stories 25 Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure 28 What is Analogy/Adaptation? 30 What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Adaptation? 30 Establishing a Definition of Adaptation through a Cognitive Model of Analogy. 33 The Activation of Adaptation/Analogy 41 Mapping: The Core of Analogy 43 Making Inferences / Mapping Analogs 48 Source-Target Transmutability 50 Evaluation & Schema Abstraction 51 The Intertextual Turn in Adaptation Studies 56 The Dominant; Or, Analogy as the Core of Adaptation 60 Competing Analogical Frames; Adaptation vs Genre 64 The Career of Adaptation 68 From Category to Continuum; Rethinking Taxonomies of Adaptation 73 !8 Dudley Andrew: Borrowing, Intersecting, Fidelity & Transformation 74 Borrowing: What Lies Beneath Prestige 74 Intersecting: Mapping the Analogy of the Chandelier 76 Fidelity & Transformations | Similarity & Difference 78 Medium Specificity Revisited as Transmedial Analogy 83 PART II: The Case Studies Lost in Adaptation: The Etruscan Essence of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady 87 Chatterley’s Lover The Legacy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover 89 D. H. Lawrence and the Great English Etruscan Novel 92 Of Etruscan Women & Etruscan Sexuality 96 Lawrence of Etruria: Tracing the Etruscan Era of D.H. Lawrence 100 The White Mind of the Chatterley Novels 111 Touch Comes: The Pleasure of the Poetic Intertext 122 The Dark Heart of Etruria: The Etruscan Essence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover 129 Prophets of a Revolution, Priests of Love 132 Analogs of Color: For the Heroes are Dipped in Scarlet 143 Analogs of Place: Of Wragby & The Wood 152 From Tomb to Page: An Adaptive Climax in Ekphrasis 156 The Feminine Phallic Gift: An Etruscan Wedding Ritual 156 The Masculine Phallic Gift: A First Encounter 162 Touch Comes to the Lucumo and his Lady 164 Etruscan Emotions: The Legacy of the Darkly Lost 173 We're All Fausts Now: Radiohead's In Rainbows as Faustian Concept 178 Album Study Overview 178 An Introduction to Faust 179 A Faust is Almost Never Just a Faust… 182 Fame, Fortune, Faust: Faust & Popular Music 185 The Origin Story: Robert Johnson and the Popular Musician as Faust 185 !9 Mephistopheles & The Modern Music Industry 191 Radiohead: A Quintessentially Indie