Nothing helps the average reader understand intensive material quite like an example does, and Huctheon's use of Carmen was a superb example of that. After spending half the chapter writing as in our last reading, Huctheon suddenly switches to an in-depth analysis of Carmen: the story, the adaptations, and the many ways we, as an audience, may find our perceptions altered based upon time and setting. It actually helped Huctheon tie together all the past critical points she had made while at the same time allowing the reader a chance to really absorb those points.
But, if you read the seven-or-so pages on that example, you are probably Carmen-ed out. So, I think I want to use the rest of this blog space to talk about "indigenization." Although this word may look like (and sound like, if one's tongue becomes momentarily indisposed) "indigestion," it is actually quite the savvy term for something entirely different. Indigenization is used to describe what all adaptations, at their earliest stage, do: mix aspects of the original story with new thoughts to create an emphasis on what the creator of the adaptation desires, usually to make it more relevant to a new culture.
Emphasis can be placed on many aspects of a story. The creator could play on themes in current events, just as Huctheon mentioned while discussing Othello during the O.J. Simpson trial; or he or she could be attempting to preserve a story while making it relevant citizens of a different country. Either way, through time or across cultures, the emphasis is placed somewhere, and it is done in such a way that a little, inner chamber of our heart becomes privy to a chorus of identifying with a prevalent message.
It's interesting to think of adaptations that way--"with emphasis." Normally, I just see an adaptation as another way of telling a story, and that is kind of what it is. But it's also telling a story to make a splash.
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