The research done in this study was motivated by the notion that individuals (or
societies) create their own reality through the specific space they occupy at a certain
moment in time. This concept of reality implies an "interspace" between (con)texts that
could be described as a hybrid (a term that is used to describe the mixing or
intermingling of different aspects or liminal space between various (con)texts. As the
notion of identity is closely related to the interaction of the individual with a specific
context, the main aim of the research was to promote hybridity as a form of identity by
exploring the relationship or dialogue between literature (novel) and film as texts.
For this purpose, a comparison was made between the formation of identity in the novel
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and its twentieth century counterpart in film
produced by Twentieth Century Fox (directed by Alfonso Cuaron and adapted by Mitch
Glazer). The main difference between the two texts, the different periods in which the
works were produced, constituted an important point of departure for this study. It also
revealed that the main character of the respective texts, Pip/Finn, possesses a type of
"core personality" of a sense of values that refuses to be repressed, despite the
character's interaction with context as reflected in the interplay between the similarities
and differences between the texts.
The methodological approach was based on the Brockmeier model which suggested an
imbrication of theories such as narratology, semiotics and intertextuality that could all
contribute, in some way, towards the formation of "textual" identity. The analysis ,first
identified three (con)textual aspects/constants in the formation of identity, namely
ideological influences, strategies of writing and social reality, in the novel Great
Expectations, and then proceeded to illustrate the transformation of these contextual
markers in the twentieth century film version. 'The comparison indicated an expansion of
the narrator's/protagonist's historic consciousness in the film that correlated with the
cultural dominants of the specific time: the film's realist mode as opposed to the
postmodernist expansion or fusion of boundaries. The two texts were perceived to be
engaged in a dialogue with no conclusive interpretation, an aspect familiar to the
postmodernist approach. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/582 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Beneke, Nanette |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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