Adaptation: A Twin Concept in Literature and Translation

While volumes of works have been published on adaptation as a concept, little has been done on the issue of adaptation in literature and translation. Adaptation can, therefore, be defined generally as an action or a process of changing something or of being changed to suit a new situation. It is the act of changing something or changing an act to make it suitable for a new purpose or situation. The idea of adaptation is not limited to both literature and translation only but it can be extended to films and their contemporary features. In literature, adaptation serves as a technique of narration and it is applicable in all genres of literature. The concept is equally applicable in translation studies; it serves as a technique of translation which may be applied to isolated parts of the text in order to deal with specific differences between the language and culture of the source text and that of the target text. Adaptation ameliorates cultural narrative, by considering the cultural links between the source language and the target language in translation studies. This is going to show us that adaptation elucidates more on the cultures and how these can be adapted into a real sense of newness of ideas in another cultural cycle. It is further explicated that the concept can be employed as an interdisciplinary one which can be applied in anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, history, sciences and in all fields of arts. Diverse examples of adaptation are explored in series of African literature, western literature and translation studies. The major objective of this is to examine how adaptation can be described as a twin concept in literature and translation. This study also attempts to explicate the areas of convergence and divergence in the concept and application of adaptation in literature and translation studies. In this study, we adopt descriptive, narrative and expository methods where we describe, narrate and reveal the necessary issues on adaptation as a technique in both literature and translation. In this study, we adopt Skopos theory, which is formulated by the German translator, Hans Vermeer in 1970’s. The theory suggests that the mission and the purpose of translation are of paramount importance. The process of translation is determined by the function of the product. This function is specified by the addressee. This theory is one of the functionalist approaches whose aim is to dethrone the source text (ST). The word “Skopos” was from Greek, meaning purpose or aim. It is used as a technical term for the purpose of translation. The Skopos theory principally suggests that translations should focus on the target culture and language illustrating the source text, their effects on the reader, and the original author’s purpose as decisive factors, rather than the effects and purposes of the source language. The study concludes that Adaptation makes the old literary work popular and marketable because it is a trend to the original work. Literary adaptation that is done rightly has more advantages than disadvantages. One of the common reasons a book or story is adapted is because the characters in that story are already well-known and this help the adapted one. Adaptation will remain relevant in all fields of arts as long as the concept of masterpiece is adapted into the current trends in literary and translation studies. The concept will continue to be significant all over the world because it exposes literary ideas to different audience. Adaptation is as old as the world and it cannot cease because of its pertinence in a changing world.