ABSTRACT
A well-established means of considering the relationship between writing and cinema is through direct comparison of written texts and their filmed adaptations. A study of, for example, a novel and a film version would have value in its identification of the specific properties of each text, in being a case study of an adaptation task and in its illumination of the intrinsic technical possibilities and limitations of novel and film as specific art forms. Such a study would typically conclude either by specifying how the film adaptation had narrowed, sharpened or altered the core meanings of the novel or by stressing the importance of seeing the novel and film as separate works, each with its own integrity and to be judged without necessary reference to the other.
