THE SHINING: A SEPARATION A Fundamental Flaw in Adaptation Studies

Abstract

In recent years, the academic field of adaptation studies has started questioning the fidelityled approach to adaptation that was long its guiding principle. This essay builds upon this novel approach by focusing on the conflictual relationship between Stephen King’s novel The Shining (1977) and the film version (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick. This comparative study shows the ways in which Kubrick’s film transcends its source material to establish itself as a unique piece of art, not beholden to standards of fidelity in order to succeed. The focus of the argument is on the central themes of the novel and the film, aspects of metafiction and postmodernism, and Kubrick’s deployment of Freud’s ideas about the uncanny.