Through the “Magic Mirror”: Adapting Angela Carter’s Japanese Writings for the Silver Screen

Abstract

This article outlines the development of a feature-length screenplay adaptation of Angela Carter’s short story “Flesh and the Mirror,” situating it within a critical discussion of her metaleptic narrative strategies and the challenges of translating them to the screen. The screenplay incorporates Carter’s Japanese short stories and journalism, which are said to be her most autobiographical writings. The article explores Carter’s attitude to life writing and highlights the dangers of a straightforward biographical adaptation, contextualizing her Japanese writings within her wider engagement with Japanese literature and the I-novel. It demonstrates how the screenplay aims to emulate Carter’s playful experimentation with narrative form, overlapping metaphors of magic mirrors, puppetry, theater, and film sets, attempting a delicate balancing act of transposing Carter’s “literary gymnastics” to the silver screen.