Киното и канонът на световната литература
The Cinema and the World Literature Canon

Summary/Abstract: In this text the author examines the question of film adaptation of works from the world literature canon, but only in relation to the issues raised by David Damrosch – circulation, translation, and estrangement. He states that although at first regarded by many writers as an enemy and rival of literature, the cinema can also be seen as saving literature by popularizing it through adaptations. Various branches of the mass media – radio, film, television, video, the Internet – have both used literature and been used by it. Robert Stam underlines the fact that adaptation can be a sensitive barometer – at once technological, aesthetic, and ideological – of changes in the social atmosphere. He says that we can find a vivid example of this barometric function in the interminable series of adaptations of “Robinson Crusoe” and witness a slow deconstruction of the figure of Crusoe as hero and the ongoing construction of Friday as hero. The cinema has also indirectly helped literature departments in the sense that literature courses increasingly rely on filmic adaptations of literature. Stam concludes that the issue of literary adaptation plays a special role in “minor” nations, where adaptations can become a “heritage” genre for the Global South.

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