MIDDLEMARCH ON SCREEN: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Many literary critics refer to the media adaptations of great literary works of literature, as inferior and subsidiary, lacking inborn aesthetic techniques which the original literary text enjoys. Thus, a fundamental question is posed regarding the very source and origin of a literary adaptation; why and how does an adaptation come into being, and what factors are involved in an author's canonization and in a literary media adaptation’s success or failure? In response to such central questions, one must refer to an individual’s primary fascination with a particular piece of a literary work as a film director, which in turn ends up in a pictorial representation of his/her joyful aesthetic experience, attaining an interpersonal scope through an active participation of an audience. Hence, the current article seeks to discuss how a media adaptation of a great 19^th century literary work, like George Eliot’s Middlemarch, can operate as a potential means of communication and transformation between the author and the audience, as the original text, through media culture with the help of virtual reality and narratology techniques. In turn, such goals can be achieved by a multidimensional analysis of the mentioned elements through George Eliot’s Middlemarch as the original text and its filmic adaptation as an independent work of art.

Keywords: George Eliot, Middlemarch, Adaptation, Narratology, Media culture, Virtual reality