Film Adaptation Theory

How might television aesthetics characterise the 'medium' or 'art form' or television? From a perspective inspired by analytic philosophical aesthetics, this paper disputes the commonplace practice of referring to television as a ‘medium’. It proposes instead that television be regarded as an art composed of many media. Individual works employ various media available to television and also to other arts.
The paper evaluates the usefulness of these distinctions for our conceptual understanding of television, appraisal of television works, and appreciation of television in relation to other arts. Via its reconfiguration of ‘medium/media’, it challenges narrowly contemporary notions of the televisual, positing a more historicised model and situating television alongside other arts – amongst friends.

Post-Soviet era directors have been searching for the new aesthetic footholds in the images of Gogol’s works. Starting from pure satire denouncing the pre-revolutionary system, they have moved on to the absurdist grotesque. This was significantly influenced by the discoveries of Gogol scholars in the 1990s–2000s and the actualization of the interpretations of Gogol’s works created at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, which were inconceivable for Soviet literary criticism Screen adaptations have been affected both directly—by theatrical productions of Gogol’s oeuvre, and indirectly—by a long tradition of stage appeals and directors’ decisions on his stories. The transfer of Gogol’s dramaturgy into the 21st century gave film directors and screenwriters the opportunity to maximize the relevance and social sensitivity of the plots. In the 21st century, the theme of an inspection as an image of the Last Judgment has been transformed into a semblance of a police detective. Most of the characters are related to the police or special services, to investigations, to real retribution. While for Gogol the idea of judgement lies in the moral plane, in post-Soviet interpretations it is usually associated with earthly requital, and an extremely explicit one, tailored to a crime TV series audience. Against such a background, Grigory Konstantinopolsky’s film adaptation of Dead Souls summarizes a decade of Gogol film interpretations. The story of Chichikov blatantly accumulates and travesties the previous tradition of presenting Gogol’s detective plots. The film actualizes the issue of a positive hero, the problem of memory transformation, and cinema’s responsibility to the society in the period of
losing its literature-centeredness. The transformation of the spiritual and intimate life of Gogol’s contemporaries, which was the most important theme for the writer, was also updated in a number of motifs: the lack of foundations for understanding between loving people (Marriage, 2009), the displacement of traditional gender roles (Happy Ending, 2010), the privatization of national memory, and summing up the unformed aesthetics of the new Russian cinema by the “lost generation” of the ‘90s (Dead Souls, 2020).
Режиссеры постсоветской эпохи искали новые эстетические опоры в образности Гоголя, переходя от чистой сатиры с обличением дореволюционной системы к абсурдистскому гротеску. Значительное влияние на это оказали гоголеведческие открытия 1990-х–2000-х гг. и актуализация трактовок творчества Гоголя рубежа ХIХ–ХХ вв., неприемлемых в советском литературоведении. Экранизации испытали как непосредственное влияние театральных постановок («Ревизор» Сергея Газарова), так и опосредованное — сложившейся к этому времени традиции сценических решений гоголевских сюжетов. Перенесение драматургии Гоголя на экран в ХХI в. дало режиссерам и сценаристам возможность максимальной актуализации и социальной заостренности сюжетов. Тема ревизии как образа Страшного суда в ХХI в. трансформировалась в подобие полицейского детектива. Большинство героев экранизаций в результате сценарной реинтерпретации оказывалось связано с полицией / спецслужбами, следствием, расследованием, с реальным возмездием. В постсоветских трактовках идея суда, лежащая для Гоголя в моральной плоскости, связывается с проблемой земного возмездия и возмездия предельно конкретного, рассчитанного на зрителя криминальных сериалов. На этом фоне итоговая для десятилетия кинопрочтений экранизация «Мертвых душ» Г. Константинопольского откровенно аккумулирует и травестирует предшествующую традицию представления гоголевских детективных сюжетов. Фильм актуализирует вопрос о положительном герое, проблеме трансформации памяти, ответственности кино перед обществом в период утраты литературоцентризма. Важнейшая для Гоголя тема неполноценности духовной жизни современника, его тотального одиночества также оказалась актуализирована в целом ряде мотивов, таких как: отсутствие основ для взаимопонимания любящих людей («Женитьба», 2009), смещение традиционных гендерных ролей («Счастливый конец», 2010), приватизация национальной памяти и подведение итогов неоформившейся эстетики нового русского кино «потерянным поколением» 1990-х («Мертвые души», 2020).

Storytelling is the process of sharing ideas and teachings across cultures. Common themes can be spread through cultural traditions as showing (theatre, film, television) and telling (novels, books, radio). These stories and lessons have been repeated again and again, yet at present, they have found a place in our culture. This adjustment becomes possible only because of the process of adaptation. Adaptation is not new;

On behalf of the Department of English Language and Literature we kindly invite you to participate in the international conference on Adaptation Studies. This international conference examines the theory, criticism, and pedagogy of adaptation. We welcome 20-minute paper proposals addressing theories and methodologies for studying adaptation studies today, proposals critiquing and analyzing specific adaptations, and proposals on the pedagogy of adaptation. Since this is an international conference, we especially welcome proposals treating cross-cultural and intercultural adaptation. For day 3, we especially welcome presentations of student work and joint faculty-student work.

English 2270 explores the relationship between film and literature and the processes of adaptation. This semester we will examine film adaptations of plays, novels, short stories, children's books, comic books, and graphic novels. This is a challenging and rewarding course that introduces you to adaptation studies and also tests your writing skills and your ability to present ideas in a large group setting.

Truman Capote was the creator of a milestone in popular culture: In Cold Blood (1966), a ‘nonfiction’ novel based upon the real murder of the Clutter family committed by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith in the town of Holcomb (Kansas), 1959. After the book was published, Capote chose director Richard Brooks to “act as intermediary between book and screen” (Capote 2007, 274) out of a great number of directors and producers. Sharing the same plot, both novel and film were published and released respectively with only a one-year difference.
After the capture of Hickock and Smith, Capote researched the case thoroughly, spent weeks talking with the prisoners, jurors, police, friends of the slain family and neighbors of Holcomb trying to unearth why such an abominable act was committed and what should have been the society's response. Hence, the novelist's main intention was to illustrate how the townspeople reacted to such a horrid event. In the meantime however Capote started to build a close relationship with Smith, acknowledging his weight in the book: “unless I could establish close contact with this half-Irish, half-Indian young man, I would have to abandon the project” (Capote 2007, 267). Reading closely between the lines of the book, we may notice that Capote's empathy with the murderer has been filtered to the point of victimizing and stressing the importance Smith in a project that was initially designed to portray the neighbors' reaction of the crime.
Taking adaptation studies and cultural studies as my central theoretical perspective, this paper aims to demonstrate not only how the figure of Perry Smith both stands as Truman Capote's alter ego and is transformed into that of a protagonist in the book, but also how Richard Brook's motion picture reassures and even elevates the murderer's position to that of a hero.

Keywords: film adaptation studies, cultural studies, hero, alter ego, nonfiction novel.

Riches (2001) is a short film directed by Zimbabwean filmmaker Ingrid Sinclair. The film is about a fiercely independent coloured woman, Molly McBride. She is a single-mother who is exiled from South Africa on an exit permit, with her young son Peter, at the height of apartheid in the mid-1980s. Hoping to find peace and a sense of ‘home’ in neighbouring Zimbabwe, Molly settles and finds a job as a primary school teacher in the country side. Before long, however, Molly feels exiled in her new home. Struggling to fit in with the other teachers and with the larger community due to her liberated, ‘city woman’ ways, Molly survives by incessant writing in her journal, and by heavy drinking and smoking. She fights the onset of poverty and mental breakdown by befriending an ostracised old woman from the village. Sinclair’s film draws on Bessie Head’s life and work, and significant parallels can be observed between the film and Head’s autobiographical novel A Question of Power (1974). This article examines Ingrid Sinclair’s short film as an adaptation. It argues that Riches not only draws on Bessie Head’s work, but also creatively re-imagines it.

The aim of this study is to analyze and compare The Shining, the 1977 novel written by Stephen King and the 1980 film adaptation produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The main issue considered is the subjective perception observable in the work of each of these artists. While Kubrick deliberately changed a myriad of elements to fit his own narrative, King was concomitantly quite upset with Kubrick's interpretation of the novel and the artistic liberty he took with writing the screenplay. An investigation into the theory of adaptation studies and the underlying issues concerning the adaptation process will be conducted and applied to the analysis of the novel and film. The viewpoints and criticism, from both the novelist and filmmaker will be taken into consideration to further explore the general issue of film adaptations. This study should point out the fundamental issues such as "faithfulness" to the novel, the filmmaker's conveyance of the story, and the artistic differences in both works of art.

Après une première sortie annulée en 2013 pour des raisons obscures (a été mentionné un blocage de la part de la veuve Giraud en raison d'une possible violation des droits concernant les dessins de son mari, largement présents dans le film), le documentaire de Frank Pavich sur l'adaptation cinématographique avortée en 1975 du planet opera culte de Frank Herbert (Dune, publié en 1965) par le réalisateur d'origine chilienne Alejandro Jodorowsky, est finalement sorti dans les salles françaises en mars 2016 (après avoir été largement visible depuis 2014 et son édition en Blu-ray).

S'il permet effectivement d'entrevoir des esquisses inédites du fameux story-board de mille pages dessiné par Jean Giraud/Moebius (et d'imaginer à quoi celui-ci ressemblerait si on l'adaptait sous forme d'anime), le documentaire de Pavich ne fournit aucune révélation particulière à l'endroit du projet « donquichottesque » du réalisateur : son histoire ayant été moult fois relatée, à commencer par Jodorowsky lui-même (qui en publia un compte rendu dès 1985 dans le supplément au numéro 107 de Métal Hurlant : « Dune, le film que vous ne verrez jamais »). Malgré son aspect « bonus DVD d'un film qui n'existe pas », Jodorowsky's Dune permet tout de même d'apprécier la place que tient ce ratage légendaire au sein de l'histoire hollywoodienne, ou dans l'imaginaire cinéphile contemporain.

Enfin, étant entièrement acquis à la « cause » du réalisateur, il offre l'opportunité de se confronter à une nouvelle version des faits et de découvrir ainsi de nouvelles failles au sein de la « légende officielle » du projet ; de confirmer - au cas où cela serait encore nécessaire - que tout ce qui est dit à son sujet doit être pris avec prudence.

After the original one was canceled in 2013 for obscure reasons (it was speculated that the widow Giraud objected due to alleged copyright infringement concerning her late husband's drawings, prominently featured in the film), Frank Pavich's documentary, centered on the failed 1975 cinematic adaptation of Frank Herbert's cult classic planet opera (Dune, 1965) by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, finally premiered in French theaters in March 2016 (although it has been widely available since 2014 through its Blu-ray edition). While it does offer new glimpses of the famous thousand-page storyboard drawn by Jean Giraud/Moebius (and allows us to envision what it might have looked like as an anime), Pavich's film doesn't unveil any significant revelations about the director's quixotic project, the story of the latter having already been recounted numerous times, primarily by Jodorowsky himself (who published his own account as early as 1985 in the supplement to issue #107 of the French magazine Métal Hurlant: “Dune, le film que vous ne verrez jamais”).

Beyond resembling a “DVD bonus about a movie that never came to fruition”, Jodorowsky's Dune allows us to appreciate the significance of this legendary failure within Hollywood history, lingering in the depths of cinephile memory. Moreover, by fully immersing us in the director's cause, it offers an additional perspective on the project's backstory, allowing us to uncover potential new flaws within its official legend. This reaffirms, if there was any doubt, the need to approach everything told about it with much caution.

The literary remediation is bound up with the improvisation, and each form of reworking the adaptation. The tenets of cinematic improvisation revolve around rethinking and reworking the original story. Remediation of Doyle's narrative 'Sherlock Holmes' has received substantial attention for alterations. Considering the significance of reworking in modern Sherlock, it's striking that the approach has garnered scant attention from critics. If Doyle’s narrative is the process of giving life to an art, improvisation can be the emendation to our sense of vibrance to the art. It can be perceived as a revitalising force, infusing cinematic art with a heightened dimension of verisimilitude by relying on the spontaneity of performers, writers, and filmmakers. Reworking in adaptation allows films to appear more intelligible to their intended audiences, with a wider scope and coherence than the original narrative. Viewing the novel facilitates improvisation and Reading the film entices reworking: This antithetical paradigm is the objective of the work which is hermeneutically discussed in this research article.
Keywords:- Sherlock Holmes, Film adaptation, Cinematic Improvisation, Reworking, Literary Remediation.

As old as the machinery of film itself, literary texts have continually informed cinematic adaptations. The interaction of two discrete media evokes questions pertaining to the nature of adaptations. Are they a new text or is a text purely 'textual'? In light of adaptation theory and the history of cinema, this paper offers a brief assessment of this phenomenological inquiry. 'Fidelity' to the source literary text has conventionally been the primary criterion for assessing a film adaptation. This paper also explores this assumption and its transformation in the postmodern world.

Les relations entre cinéma et littérature, l’interpénétration de leurs langages respectifs. Les rapports entre littérature et cinéma ne se réduisent pas au seul phénomène de l’adaptation. L’hybridation - notamment celle des films qui ont coulé leur forme dans un moule fictionnel ou un dispositif narratif emprunté à l’univers de la littérature - ne dépend plus de l’inachèvement du processus d’adaptation, mais de l’inscription de la fiction dans un territoire intermédiaire où les modes d’expression de la littérature et du cinéma se côtoient sans se confondre entièrement.

Lady Gaga a well known figure as 'mother monster’ and 'Queen of pop' and also one of the
most celebrated artists of all time has been controversial for her music videos and fashion sense, especially her
vision regarding religion, sex and gender empowering experiments with modern culture is unique. In this paper
I have discussed her most controversial and approachable music video ''Judas'', from the album, Born this Way,
a watermark of her music career that landed her atop of the most experimental music diva of all time. She uses
the imagery of Judas' betrayal as a backdrop which throws up some interesting themes.
Keywords: Sacred, redemption, holy, evil, testament, orthodox, betrayal and love.

En 1931 fue estrenada en Madrid la revista musical —también conocida como un pasatiempo cómico lírico en dos actos— Las leandras, con libreto escrito por Emilio González del Castillo y José Muñoz Román, y con música de Francisco Alonso. La obra fue bien recibida por la crítica y el público, siendo reestrenada en varias ocasiones en España, hasta que fue fuertemente censurada durante el franquismo experimentando la modificación de sus letras y algunas situaciones.
La presente comunicación tiene como objetivo estudiar el proceso de adaptación de la revista musical al cine, contemplando las dos adaptaciones cinematográficas que existen hasta el momento: la versión mexicana 'Las leandras' (Gilberto Martínez Solares, 1961) y la española 'Las leandras' (Eugenio Martín, 1969).

Forms of film remaking in three versions of Paolo Genovese’s “Perfect Strangers”: intermedial renewals and degrees of transformation    Abstract. Released in 2016, Paolo Genovese’s well-received film “Perfect Strangers” has been remade 18 times by July 2019 and was included in the “Guiness Book of Records”. This comparative case study analyses the Italian film, its Spanish version, as well as the French remake and the Russian variation. The paper explores the intermedial content of the original film representing the smartphone as a dispositive generating framed narratives in the main plot. The forms of remaking as “transcultural adaptation” (Hutcheon 2006) are related to different degrees of repetition, transformation and renewal. The premises for the film’s high adaptative faculty are therefore to be associated with the innovative intermedial structure and the potential of the plot devices to be reinvented and adapted to local reception areas.

This essay investigates the way the writers of BBC Sherlock used plot and characterization to humanize Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and create what is perhaps a better version of the character. The first way I approach this question is through a study of adaptation theory, the way characters and plot must change in order to produce a successful visual media from a written text. The television show writers moved Doyle’s stories from their original chronology to create a believable atmosphere for a modern Sherlock. Knowing how and why these changes are successful is imperative to understanding why Sherlock is successful. Following this discussion, I analyze multiple examples of characterization from both media. The most important example of characterization is that of John Watson, and I give in-depth analysis to explain why this is the case. I also cover the topic of minor characters, whose on-screen augmentations have enhanced, or surpassed (as is the case for Molly Hooper), their original depictions in the story of Holmes. In this essay I recognize and discuss the way the timeline of stories has changed and the implications these changes have for the characters, especially Holmes. Every detail, whether it is original, altered, or altogether new, has a purpose and dissecting the details provides a more accurate picture of the success of Sherlock Holmes in any medium, as well as why some media are better than others. In conclusion, we find that BBC Sherlock is more successful than its written counterpart because it features stronger characters and a more intricate story-line.

This article goes over the wide range of trends of thought which have studied film adaptation. The course is established with two principal purposes: First of all, to make understandable several aspects regarding the nature of adaptation itself; second, to detect the short attention which has been paid to the thematic dimension inherent in all adaptation processes. In order to do so, an iconological approach is proposed at the end of the article, meant to recover the understanding of adaptation as a reinterpretation and dialogue between the adapter and the literary fable (mythos).

AWARDS:

2011 AQUILA POLONICA ARTICLE PRIZE

The biennial prize, funded by Aquila Polonica Publishing, is awarded by the Polish Studies Association to the author of "the best article written in English during the previous two years on any aspect of Polish studies."

FROM THE AWARD COMMITTEE:

Romanska’s article "succeeds taking a relatively difficult and opaque subject, Grotowski’s 1962 re-staging of Wyspiański’s Akropolis against the background of Auschwitz, both accessible and rewarding for readers who are not specialists in Polish theatre. While Romanska’s analysis remains grounded in theatre, and her conclusion is ultimately about theatrical production, she raises many questions about history, memory, and national mythology that most readers will want to learn more about. What is particularly impressive is the scope of the article, which ranges over the entire twentieth century. [...] Romanska’s work makes a convincing argument that we need to be paying more attention to theatre in Poland."

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2010 GERALD KAHAN SCHOLAR'S PRIZE

Awarded by the American Society for Theatre Research, for “best essay written and published in English in a refereed scholarly journal.” The winning essay is judged as "displaying originality in the broad field of theatre and performance, exhibiting critical rigor, showing an acquaintance with related research in theatre and performance, and promising future professional development in the field.”

FROM THE AWARD COMMITTEE:

Romanska’s essay offers“an excellent unpacking of both Stanislaw Wyspianski’s 1904 drama, Akropolis, and its production history. Her essay made use of extensive sources to tell a complicated story-layered text, performance, and context, paying attention to the original script as well as performances, especially, those directed by Jerzy Grotowski. The essay provides a missing, though essential, analysis of a production that is often cited, but perhaps rarely understood in its full context. The methods of historiography and documentary analysis are excellent and provide an instructive model for future performance scholarship.”"""

Киноапофатика / Под ред. Л. Д. Бугаевой. СПб., 2018.                                                                 

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Photogénie and semiotics in the 1920s film adaptations of Russian classics ("The Stationmaster", "The Overcoat",  "Superfluous People")    -------                                                                     

The article focuses on the films by Y. Zhelyabuzhsky, G. Kozintsev/L.Trauberg, and A. Razumny which adapt texts from the 19th-century Russian literary canon (Pushkin, Gogol, Chekhov). The films are analyzed from the perspective of exhibiting the photogenic and the semiotic approach as possible tendencies in the cinematic work with literature. The films "The Stationmaster" (1925) and "The Overcoat" (1926) gravitate towards semiotics; its defining moments are the transfer of literary plot into film or alternatively objectification of verbal signs and the materialization of linguistic tropes. In the film "Superfluous People" (German: "Überflüssige Menschen", 1926) the article reveals an orientation not toward the linguistic sign, but rather toward the image preceding the sign. It is the image, comprehended as the pre-verbal phenomenon, which enables a photogenic (or phenomenal) work of a pre-sound film with supporting literary texts.

РИМЕЙК И АДАПТАЦИЯ. МРЕЖАТА НА ФИЛМОВИТЕ ПРЕНАПРАВИ 
В първата част на статията съпоставям филмови практики като римейк и адаптация в двойното им качество на процеси и продукти. Проследявам възникването и значенията на първото понятие, появата и развититето му като дейност в киното и теоретичното му осмисляне чрез изследвания на Ж. Садул, Т. Гънинг, Т. Лийч, К. Веревис, Дж. Форест, А. Уилямс и др. Откроявам концептуално и с примери разлики спрямо адаптацията и защитавам необходимостта от разграничаване на явленията, независимо от сходствата помежду им. Във втората част разглеждам мрежата от сродни формати за пренаправяне на филмови продукти и тяхната роля в популярната култура.
Ключови думи: римейк, адаптация, Томас Лийч, филмов сериал, продължение (sequel).

REMAKE AND ADAPTATION. FILM REWORKINGS NETWORK
In the first part of this paper, I juxtapose film practices such as remakes and adaptations in their dual quality of processes and products. I trace the origin and meanings of the first concept, its appearance and development as a cinematic activity, and its theoretical elaboration through studies of G. Sadoul, T. Gunning, T. Leitch, C. Verevis, J. Forrest, A. Williams et al. I highlight conceptually and with examples the difference between the two phenomena and defend the need to distinguish them, regardless of their similarities. In the second part, I discuss the network of related formats for reworking film products and their role in popular culture.
Keywords: remake, adaptation, Thomas Leitch, film series, sequel

Friday January 28, 2022 at 5 pm Central European time on Zoom. Asian performance aesthetics have a symbiotic but uncomfortable relationship to Western epistemologies. This paper addresses the role of the Western canon, represented by Shakespeare, in East Asian cinema. Drawing on case studies of Japanese, Korean, and Hong Kong adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedies, this paper expands the purview of postcolonial studies which tends to focus on British colonialism and Anglophone colonies. In the context of critical whiteness studies, it is racist to regard non-Western films as merely footnotes to the white canon. I seek to de-colonize the study of non- Western cultures and of the Western canon.  ::::  https://www.online.uni-marburg.de/okzidentalismus/index.php/en/2021/11/15/international-conference-media-aesthetics-of-occidentalism/

Twenty-first century adaptation studies embraces adaptation as a diverse cultural practice incorporating eclectic individual examples. This pluralism reflects contemporary, real-world creative practices and dominant theoretical trends.
However, our concept of adaptation is necessarily diluted as it expands to form a catch-all category for various permutations of borrowing, remaking, inspiring, etc. The question 'What is (an) adaptation?', which pertains to the very definition and delineation of our field, lies neglected. Whilst our appreciation of individual works develops, the crucial conceptual dimension of adaptation studies suffers.
Moreover, the vocabulary adaptation scholars once relied upon appears to be in crisis, its explanatory power increasingly undermined, as alternative terms proliferate. Potentially valuable distinctions between adaptation and closely related practices become blurred.
This chapter recommends we rejuvenate conceptual exploration by attending closely to the language of adaptation studies, taking inspiration from the Anglo-American analytic philosophical tradition.
This chapter sets the ball rolling, taking up one critical concern: the relationship and differences between adaptation and intertextuality. It aims to unravel and revitalise the two concepts, thereby demonstrating how adaptation scholars might develop a more precise vocabulary from which new conceptual insights and debate can evolve.

Analyzing trans narratives about the early moderns through the lenses of affective labor and social reparation, this chapter reclaims as trans the Shakespeare films that have been misinterpreted as homosexual. In doing so, this chapter builds a longer, more intersectional history of gendered embodiment. Reparative trans performances—works in which characters see their conditions improve—carry substantial affective rewards by offering optimism and emotional gratification, as exemplified by two recent films about early modern theatre making. The South Korean blockbuster The King and the Clown (dir. Lee Joon-ik, 2005) delineates the love triangle between a fifteenth-century king, a masculine jester, and a trans feminine character. Stage Beauty (dir. Richard Eyre, Lions Gate, 2004) chronicles the private life and stage career of the historical boy actor Edward Kynaston (1640–1712) who plays exclusively female roles before taking on male roles on stage. By reading these two films in the context of trans cinema, this chapter makes an intervention in both transgender and Shakespeare studies by demonstrating new ways to interpret gender variance beyond just a dramatic device. :::: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501759505/trans-historical/#bookTabs=1 ::::: ISBN: 978-1501759505

Abstract: The legendary story of Mulan， recorded in The Ballad of Mulan, is of great importance in Chinese
cultural memory, and iconic in calling on women of new femininity to join in rescuing Chinese nation or socialist construction. Adapted to retell traditional story in China, this story also inspired Disney's cartoon film Mulan and its live action version. As to the representation of gender and the state, and ideologies delivered in adapting and retelling traditional Chinese stories, Shao Brothers' Hua Mulan ( 1964) , Director Ma Chucheng's Hua Mulan ( 2009) , and Disney's feature animated film Mulan ( 1998) lack women's perspective as subjects. Thus, if common women do follow Mulan's example to work and fight，they will face specific gender problems that have never been included in the public discourse．
Key words: gender; state; nation; Hua Mulan; adaptation