{"id":76,"date":"2026-05-07T19:18:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/?page_id=76"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:18:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:18:57","slug":"adaptation-adoption-and-appropriation-of-the-medieval","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/contents\/adaptation-adoption-and-appropriation-of-the-medieval\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptation, Adoption, and Appropriation of the Medieval"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Carol L. Robinson
\nKent State University<\/h6>\n
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Adaptation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Diagram by Alexa Alice Joubin; SOURCE: What Is an Adaptation?<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Adaptations of ideas, stories, plays, poetry, and literature represents a highly challenging art form. As Alexa Joubin’s diagram emphasises (above), it is a misconception that adaptation is a purely mimetic<\/em> process: it is not a process that is even able to to be the absolute mirror of the work adapted.\u00a0 Indeed, according to Joubin<\/a><\/span>, “Scholars such as Thomas Leitch, Linda Hutcheon, and Robert Stam have regarded adaptation as a dialogic process. Adaptations of literature are in dialogue with pressing social issues of our times and with past literary masters.” All sorts of factors affect the adaptation process, including: personal taste(s), culture, politics, language, individual role identities (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, etc.), corporate identities, national identities, empathy, sympathy, ethics,\u00a0 and logic.<\/p>\n

To study a work adapted from something else is to analyze how that thing (object, story, whatever) has been transformed from one medium into another: what’s been gained? what’s been lost? Such an analysis can reveal alternative interpretations of the original item. A lack of fidelity to the original item can reveal hidden meanings or critiques of that item, and can inspire discussions about authorship<\/em>, originality<\/em>, and cultural significance<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Adoption<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Is Medieval Times adoption or appropriation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament<\/span><\/a> Locations: Chicago (Illinois), Atlanta (Georgia), Baltimore (Maryland), Buena Park (California), Dallas (Texas),\u00a0 Lyndhurst (New Jersey), Myrtle Beach (South Carolina), Orlando (Florida), Scottsdale (Arizona), Toronto (Ontario, Canada)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Appropriation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The word in language is half someone else\u2019s. It becomes one\u2019s \u201cown\u201d only when the speaker populates it with his own intentions, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention. Prior to this moment of appropriation, the word does not exist in a neutral and impersonal language\u2026 but rather it exists in other people\u2019s mouths, in other people\u2019s contexts, serving other people\u2019s intentions; it is from there that one must take the word, and make it one\u2019s own. (p. 294)<\/p>\n

\u2014Michael Bakhtin. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays<\/em> (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992).<\/p>\n

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This medieval image has been appropriated and adapted for contemporary animated aesthetics.<\/p><\/div>\n

Michael Bakhtin<\/a> <\/span>is attributed with the cultural concept of appropriation<\/em> (via Georg Hegal<\/a><\/span> and Karl Marx<\/a><\/span>). He was a Russian linguist and a literary critic (1895-1975). He defined appropriation<\/em> as a process in which a person or a people take(s) something that belongs to others\u00a0 to make use of it for personal or sociological purposes\/intentions. Mostly, Bakhtin used the word\u00a0 appropriation<\/em> to describe language acquisition and the ways in which dialogue is constantly developing. However, the concept (and theory) have blossomed over the years. In this lesson, we are going to dive deeper into cultural and linguistic appropriation, particularly in terms of postcolonialism<\/em><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n