Story or Narrative? : Theoretical Reflections on Västanå Theater’s Adaptations from Epic to Drama—the Example of the Poetic Edda (2019)

• This paper deals with transmedial adaptation in theatrical performance by examining how non-dramatic myths—with the Poetic Edda as a case in point—have been adapted for the stage by Västanå theatre. Västanå’s trademark expression—combining spoken text (usually from non-dramatic prose or epic) with music and dance, drawing inspiration from Swedish and Nordic folk tradition—forms a unique opportunity to study adaptation as both articulation and reception, process and product. The focus lies on in what ways Västanå theatre’s interpretations transform epic and narrative into dramatic multimodal artworks in which costume, dance and music are central ingredients of storytelling. How do these multimodal transformations reflect and respond to different cultural and ideological contexts?                      According to Walter Benjamin, with the modern decline of oral storytelling narrative was transformed from a collective exchange of shared experience between narrator and listener, in the realm of living speech, into a more isolated contemplation, hence, in a way, reinforcing the (patriarchal and Romantic) notion of the lonely genius. New media, however, could be understood as always already immanent in the original story, which indicates that transmedial adaptation is cyclical rather than linear. In the case of dramatized myths, it is particularly instructive to look at the medium of the theatre as a configuration of different modalities. As an interface between oral and literate culture, theatrical adaptation includes (re)interpretation, (re-)creation as well as (re-)negotiation, with not only contextual but also epistemological and existential implications.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Idé- och lärdomshistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- History of Ideas (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

History of Ideas

Idéhistoria

Kulturstudier

Cultural studies

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)