The theory of BAD-aptation

Elliott, Kamilla (2018) The theory of BAD-aptation. In: The Routledge Companion to Adaptation. Routledge Companions . Routledge, London, pp. 18-27. ISBN 9781138915404

Abstract

This chapter addresses the discourse of BADaptation (a term coined by Con Verevis), arguing that it stems largely from a longstanding dysfunctional relationship between adaptation and theorization, rival processes vying to shape culture in their images. New theories have not, as scholars had hoped, eradicated the discourse; they have rather multiplied the ways in which adaptation can be theoretically bad. The chapter proposes that we theorize adaptations as adaptations (rather than solely or merely as books, films, media, translation, narrative, politics, history, philosophy, and so forth) and that we develop ‘adaptive theorization’, in which adaptation talks back to and adapts theorization to itself.