Translatability in Film Adaptation: The Case of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club

Abstract

The amalgamation between literature and other forms of arts induces the emergence of film adaptation theory as a new field to merge literature with cinema. In the twentieth century the theory of film adaptation draws the attention and inspired several writers and critics. Thus, film adaptation is no longer considered as a simple process of turning a literary text into moving image, but rather an aesthetic voyage. Our study seeks to trace the concept of translatability or fidelity to the novels‟ thematic and stylistic format when transforming a novel into a movie. Chuck Palahniuk‟s novel Fight Club 1996 and its filmic version with the same title by David Fincher 1999is taken as a sample for our study. Throughout a detailed analysis, this study examines to what extent both the film and the novel were successful in demonstrating the characteristics of postmodern period. Further, it sheds the light to the director‟s use of the different cinematic techniques to translate the writer‟s version into moved scenes and also his nimbleness in turning characters into actors. Moreover, our dissertation thoughtfully compares and contrasts the novel and its adaptation and pick out similarities. By the end of this research, film adaptation theory, the translatability, and postmodernism will be clearly related to Fight Club to portray our subject of matter.