Master's Thesis on "Postmodern Story Adaptation". Here applied on postmodern storytelling and transformative screenwriting, in relation to how Robert McKee's 'Story' is reflected in Charlie Kaufman's 'Adaptation' – in text and subtext, form and content.
Adaptation's content, reflecting the dream of an art film/antiplot, is critical – while the form is a complicitous Hollywood form. The ideas and discussions in the film are original, but its form of storytelling is not. This is reflected in Adaptation's doubleness, its postmodern mix of complicity and critique, and in how it uses the postmodern device of parody to play with what's real and what's not, and how the film – in a sense – is a conscious failure. The film’s illusion of writing itself, however, forces the viewer to active engagement, creating a critical, Brechtian verfremdung effect – most notably in the film’s third act. Adaptation proves to be a process of evolution and adaptation through transformative screenwriting.
