LE3 .A278 2011

2011

Saklofske, Jon

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

English

English & Theatre Studies

This thesis views Philip K. Dick‘s novel, A Scanner Darkly, and Richard Linklater‘s filmic adaptation through the lenses of remediation and transmedia storytelling. It examines how mediative distancing, in the forms of narrative and stylistic excess, can facilitate understanding rather than confound comprehension. A significant part of my argument is comprised of the assertion that perceptually obtrusive and conceptually ambiguous episodes in the novel informed Richard Linklater‘s hypermediated adaptation; which, via its filmic excesses, expands or transmediates the source narrative, providing the potential for a clearer understanding of the film and, upon subsequent reflection, the novel as well. The further we are distanced from both works, the closer we are able to come to an empathetic and unified vision of each narrative. Both stories become comprehensible through comprehensiveness. More scanners, more mirrors, more dissonant perspectives enable the reader or viewer to penetrate the narrative layers that obscure the story.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:190