Last night I dreamt of (re-)adaptation: reimagining Rebecca from page via screen to stage

Abstract Re-adaptation refers to the phenomenon whereby an adaptation’s interpretation of its source material is influenced by preceding adaptations of the same work. This article examines Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) as an allegory of (re-)adaptation. I argue that the narrative not only presents the unnamed protagonist’s effort to adapt a predecessor, but more specifically her attempt to re-adapt the role of Mrs. de Winter through the haunting influence of Rebecca, who serves as a particularly successful prior adaptation of the same role. This allegorical reading is framed within the broader discussion of the triadic relationship that mirrors the same dynamic, encompassing du Maurier’s novel and its two major (re-)adaptations—Alfred Hitchcock’s film (1940) and Kunze and Levay’s musical (2006). Just as Rebecca casts a shadow over her successor, du Maurier’s Rebecca continues to exert a significant influence over its (re-)adaptations through recurring iconography associated with Rebecca herself—the ‘R’ monogram, floral symbolism, and the sea—all of which resurface in both (re-)adaptations. Hitchcock’s Rebecca parallels Rebecca’s status as a particularly influential adaptation of its source. Its key alteration of the story—exonerating Maxim de Winter to comply with the Hays Code—is inherited by the musical re-adaptation. While being shaped by both du Maurier’s and Hitchcock’s works, Kunze and Levay’s Rebecca ultimately asserts its own artistic vision by repositioning the story as one of the protagonist’s psychological maturation, a shift that parallels the musical’s distinctive portrayal of her as ultimately surpassing Rebecca as a morally superior Mrs. de Winter.