Entanglements of adaptation, allegory, and reception: Jaws and An Enemy of the People

ABSTRACT In this article the authors discuss Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) with Henrik Ibsen’s En Folkefiende (An Enemy of the People; 1882) as a test case for formulating a better theoretical understanding of adaptations that are neither “announced” nor “extended”; the analysis thus explores adaptation as a special form of intertextuality. The authors reference other cinematic engagements with the same play, including Hans Steinhoff’s Ein Volksfeind (1937), Detlef Sierck’s La Habanera (1937), George Schaefer’s An Enemy of the People (1978), Satyajit Ray’s Ganashatru (1989), and Erik Skjoldbjærg’s En folkefiende (2005), as they investigate the importance of polysemic allegorical structures, the inherently “dialectical” nature of the process of adaptation, the role of reception in newer theories of adaptation, and the implications of understanding adaptation as a particular film genre. The authors propose viewing adaptation as a process that necessarily includes the audience’s understanding of hypotext and hypertext in ways that influence meaning production; it invites consideration of the source text in the film’s reception, consequently linking the source text and its author to other cultural and social discourses that, in turn, influence their reception reflexively in light of the adaptation.