GIVEN MATERIAL

When not repeating themselves, artists tend to repeat others. While working on her translation of Madame Bovary, Lydia Davis read Gustave Flaubert’s extensive correspondence and rewrote parts of it as short stories, which she included in her collection Can’t and Won’t. The same collection includes pieces marked as “dreams,” some of which are inspired by actual dreams, and some of which are real-life incidents written in the manner of a recounted dream. In an interview with The Paris Review, Davis said, “I think it’s hard to draw the line and say that something isn’t found material. Because if a friend of mine tells me a story or a dream, I guess that’s found material. If I get an e-mail that lends itself to a good story, that’s found material. But then if I notice the cornmeal making little condensations, is that found material?”

Authorship aside, the use of such material is a form of artistic repetition. Adapting the existing stories into our own forces us to reconsider the appearance and meaning of the source, and, in the process of repetition, give it a different context.

ASSIGNMENT 5: ADAPTATION PT.1

Pick one of the texts below and do a direct adaptation, making sure that every word is present.

Ask yourself what your contribution interacts with the text: does it add something, challenge it, or simply makes it as easier read?

The text may be hand-lettered or typeset, depending on the style and application.

You may break the lines of the text however you like, as long as the full piece is still readable and coherent in your adaptation.

Format: 8,5x11” vertical

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