From literature to film: discussing gender identities

Abstract

The title of this work refers to the initial project that aimed to analyze how the concept of non-fixed gender identity, present in Woolfs novel Mrs. Dalloway, was expanded and updated by two new works - Michael Cunninghams novel The Hours and its homonymous film adaptation, by filmmaker Stephen Daldry. It was our intention to consider Genettes Theory of Transtextuality and McFarlanes Theory of Adaptation in order to investigate how Cuningham and Daldry built their hypertexts. Finally, we intended to discuss the concept of non-fixed gender identity, under the perspective of the feminist and critic Toril Moi. However, this last discussion was suppressed. Presented now is a study of Literature in the second degree resulting in an analysis of the process that created The Hours by rewriting Mrs. Dalloway. This work, therefore, aims to analyze how Virginia Woolfs novel Mrs. Dalloway was expanded and updated by two new works: the novel The Hours, by Michael Cunningham and its homonymous film adaptation, by filmmaker Stephen Daldry. But first, the analysis considers Gérard Genettes Theory of Transtextuality when investigating the creation of Cunninghams hypertext from Woolfs hypotext, expanding Mrs. Dalloway into the novel The Hours. Then, this analysis continues by applying McFarlanes Theory of Adaptation in order to investigate how Daldry built his hypertext from Woolfs and Cunninghams hypotexts. The choices the novelist and filmmaker had to make in order to create their works serve as resources for our investigation of the factors that contributed to the transformation of these two works.