Description
Misdirecting the Mise en Abyme: Fellini's 8½ and the Non-Authentic Simulacra of Writer's Block in Nine and Stardust MemoriesThe inauthenticity of adaptation is thematically addressed through the self-referential narrative of Federico Fellini's meta-film 8½ (1963). In order to understand the relationship between authenticity and the subsequent meta-adaptations of 8½, it will be argued that Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) and Arthur Kopit's musical adaptation of Nine (1982) are neither authentic nor inauthentic adaptations—but in fact simulacra of a non-authentic original. Furthermore, the simulacra created from these adaptations not only obfuscate the authenticity of adaptation but also challenge traditional notions of original work. The mise en abyme, a favored motif used thematically within the works to be scrutinized, becomes a symbol of the inter-theatric adaptations of 8½ that oscillate between the screen to the theatre—and back again: Fellini’s ‘original’ work is a meta-cinematic film about the creative process, Allen's Stardust Memories is a film adaptation of the meta-cinematic film about the creative process, the musical Nine is a theatrical adaptation of the meta-cinematic film about the creative process, and finally the 2009 film adaptation of Nine is a cinematic adaptation of a theatrical adaptation of a meta-cinematic film about the creative process. The notion of authenticity within the subsequent adaptations of Fellini’s film, a work that will be argued to have a tenuous level of authenticity to begin with due to it's thematic portrayal of a subject that by its very definition can't be portrayed authentically, is what Baudrillard would refer to as a ‘real without origin or reality.’
| Period | 19 Feb 2014 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Leicester, United KingdomShow on map |