Of Art, Codes, and Transcoding: Revisiting Intersemiotic Conversations in The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920) and Martin Scorsese (1993)

Abstract:This essay explores the inscription of codes and intersemiotics in Wharton's The Age of Innocence and its 1993 adaptation by Martin Scorsese, and analyzes the effects derived from them. It begins by showing how the sense of ironical distance that prevails in the first chapters of the novel is redefined in the film, especially in the brilliant title sequence and opening scene that set a different tone, more likely to trigger identification with the characters and produce emotion, instead of underscoring convention. Apart from the opera motif, other intersemiotic connections that function differently in the book and its adaptation deserve to be examined. Thus the essay studies how pictorial quotations abound in the film, more than in Wharton's novel, especially works by James Tissot that convey a sense of ambiguity, while other paintings are related to the transcoding of violence and mystery. It then discusses the subversive emphasis on frames and framing and the reference to tableau vivant, before dwelling on facets of textual and filmic reflexivity.