Adaptation studies has emerged as an important field in recent years with the publication of theoretical works such as Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation and Julie Sanders’s Adaptation and Appropriation, both from 2006. Scholars of Hispanic literature, however, have only just taken the beginning steps in this new direction. One notable example is the collection of essays titled Remaking the Comedia: Spanish Classical Theater in Adaptation, edited by Harley Erdman and Susan Paun de García, and published in 2015. This volume, however, focuses on the adaptation of early modern theatrical texts for contemporary performance, and does not address other genres or types of adaptation. This panel will contribute to filling that gap by examining three less common examples of transgeneric and transcultural adaptations of Hispanic literary works.

While it is common for filmmakers to adapt novels, it is somewhat unusual for them to do the same with essays. Professor Haley Osborn, an expert on adaptation theory and Latin American literature, will analyze an example of this phenomenon. The 1993 film La guagua aérea (The Air Bus), directed by Luis Molina Casanova, is based on a 1983 essay of the same title by the Puerto Rican author Luis Rafael Sánchez. Osborn will argue that, although very similar in plot and dialogue, these two works reveal deep differences in sociocultural and political thought. While Sánchez’s essay suggests an optimistic outlook for the movement of the Puerto Rican diaspora, Molina Casanova’s film speaks of a need to remain connected to the homeland and emphasizes the notion of the traveler destined to return to his or her roots.

Another less common form of transgeneric adaptation is that of a theatrical work into a comic book. Professor Ignacio Arellano-Torres, an expert on early modern Spanish literature, will study the process by which Ricardo Vilbor, Alberto Sanz, and Mario Ceballos created a 2018 comic book version of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s masterpiece drama La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream, 1635). He will explain that Calderón’s work is characterized by its tension between reality and dream, and will argue that this tension serves as a metaphor for the adaptation of texts to visual forms of communication. He will then examine the visual aspects of Vilbor et al.’s comic book to demonstrate how it transfers Calderón’s plot into a contemporary ideological and affective context.

Finally, while it is common for Hispanic writers and artists to adapt Hispanic literary works, it is unusual for adapters from other cultures to do so. Professor Ahmed Idrissi Alami, an expert on North African literature, will examine the Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami’s novel The Moor’s Account (2014), a rewriting of La relación y comentarios (The Relation and Commentaries, 1542) by the Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. La relación y comentarios is work is a first-person testimony of the author’s shipwreck and subsequent eight years among the indigenous peoples of modern-day Texas. His account has a decidedly European bias and tends to erase peripheral perspectives and voices, including that of Estebanico, a Moorish slave who accompanied Cabeza de Vaca in his misfortunes. The Moor’s Account reimagines the experience from Estebanico’s perspective. Idrissi Alami will argue that Lalami’s retelling of La relación constitutes an example of postcolonial intervention that serves to insert an Arab transatlantic viewpoint into the global imaginary of exploration discourse.

This panel is constituted in a way that opens new directions in the field of Hispanic adaptation studies. It will reflect upon adaptation theory as applicable to the context of Hispanic literature. It will examine the processes and consequences of adapting both classical and recent texts to three different genres: film, comic books, and novel. Finally, it will explore the (inter)cultural and political implications of transgeneric, transtemporal, and transcultural adaptation.

With three speakers, there will be two minutes per speaker for introductions, eighteen minutes for each presentation, and fifteen minutes at the end for discussion. This format will be suitable for allowing the audience to follow the progression of ideas and ask questions at the end.