Translating cultures: Literary gymnastics and formal hybridity in adapting Angela Carter’s Japanese writings for the screen

Crofts, Charlotte

Abstract

Angela Carter, one of the best known British writers of the 20th Century, was actively involved with the adaptation of her own work and also wrote directly for radio, film and television (explored in Crofts, 2003). She would have gone on to write more for these media if it weren’t for her untimely death in 1992. Best known for her “adult” fairy tale collection, The Bloody Chamber – now firmly on the A-Level syllabus and university curriculum – Carter’s Japanese writings (discussed in Crofts, 2006) remain relatively neglected. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in her life and work 25 years after her death, with the recent Strange Worlds Exhibition at the RWA Bristol, Edmond Gordon’s biography and – particularly relevant - the forthcoming publication of her Japanese lover, Sozo’s memoirs.

This paper will present a practice research project exploring the delicate act of translating Angela Carter’s literary gymnastics – involving vertiginous shifts in narrative point of view – to the screen using a mixture of techniques including live action, animation and puppetry to create a formal hybrid. In addition to this textual transformation, the project also navigates the cultural complexities of translating Angela Carter’s relationship with Japan – the place she said “radicalised” her as a woman – to the screen.

This feature film project is in development and the presentation will tease out the research questions, aims and objectives and in so doing, explore the ongoing challenges of articulating practice as research.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Media communications and cultural studies association (MeCCSA) annual conference, 2018
• Start Date: Jan 10, 2018
• End Date: Jan 12, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jan 5, 2023
• Keywords: Translating Culture; Adaptation; Angela Carter; Practice Research
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10289875
• Related Public URLs: https://www.meccsa.org.uk/