Output details

“Adaptive Behaviours: Ray Bradbury’s short fictions re-interpreted for media”

Brief Description

This book chapter gives a detailed examination of how a single visually evocative short story by the American author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) has been transformed in a number of different media adaptations in radio, film, television and comic books/graphic novels. Bradbury’s writing strategy in the composition of the short story is compared and contrasted with his strategy in his own screenplay adaptation. The article also examines ways in which Bradbury’s evocative prose stimulates the focus of graphic artists.

Research Rationale

This is the first academic study to undertake a close reading of a Bradbury short story in conjunction with a screenplay and final screen production. Bradbury is renowned as a “visual” writer and one who, as a short story writer, engages all of the senses, but his strategies as a screenwriting are largely unexplored. The chapter considers ways that a text invites or discourages visual amplification. The book, themed as a study of issues in Adaptation Studies, is edited by I.Q Hunter, the Head of the Centre for Adaptation Studies (DeMontfort University) and literature and film scholar Thomas Van Parys. Other contributors include Mark Bould (author of Science Fiction: Routledge Film Guidebook, 2012)).

Strategies Undertaken

The chapter contributes to the comparatively new and developing research area of Screenplay Studies. It draws on close-reading of Bradbury’s short story text, archival research among Bradbury’s unpublished manuscripts held at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies (Indiana University), and examination of completed films and graphic novels. It is developed from a conference paper originally presented at the conference “SF Across Media”, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 28 May 2009.