The key stylistic feature of Manuel Puig’s novel Kiss of the Spiderwoman is its intense meta fictionality. That is to say: central to Puig’s novel is the stylistic awareness to how the story is told. There are two characters in a prison cell that take the entire burden of moving the narrative forward through, for the most part, dialogue. In addition to moving forward their own story one of the characters entertains the other with bedtime story versions of films he has seen. Can we read this as a sort of meta fictional adaptation?
Molina, the character who tells the film-stories within the novel, “embroiders” the details of the movies. He retelling of the films are essentially decorated “mechanisms” of the actual narratives. “Mechanism” is the term Bertolucci used in his explanation of his adaptation of Borges’ short-story “Theme of the Traitor and the Hero”. In examining the original work in relation to Bertolucci’s adaptation we can define the mechanism of a story as its essential narrative workings.
Molina recounts the mechanisms of the films with fidelity but the embroideries and the affect of Valentin’s commentary intersecting with the retelling calls for us to read these as miniature adaptations. Framing the mini adaptations within a novel further defends a case that these retellings of films are trans-genre adaptations.
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I think you're right that there is a "metafilmic" element to Molina's storytelling.
ReplyDeleteHowever, while you are correct that Bertolucci's and Molina's approach to "adaptation" is similar, I would argue that there's a subtle difference. What Bertolucci calls "mechanism" seems to me to be the very basic plot. Thus he can claim to have adapted Borges's mechanism even though Ireland has become Italy, the 19th century, the 1930s, etc.
Molina (more or less) respects not only the "mechanism" but the actual plot, in particular in Cat People, less so in the other films. However, he introduces changes to secondary aspects of the plots in order to make them more relevant to his experiences and surroundings.