![]() In many ways film adaptations are seen as a pervasion of literature, and sit at the bottom of the media hierarchy. “Terms like ‘infidelity,’ ‘betrayal,’ ‘deformation,’ ‘violation,’ ‘bastardization,’ ‘vulgarization’ and ‘desecration’ proliferate adaptation discourse” (Stam, 3). In a lot of critical areas of study, adaptations are seen, especially adaptations to film, as a sort of slandering of literature. This ‘transcoding’ can involve a shift of medium (a poem to a film) or genre (an epic to a novel), or a change of frame and therefore context” (Hutcheon, 7). So what is an adaptation? According to Linda Hutcheon in her book A Theory of Adaptation, and adaptation is “an announced and extensive transposition of a particular work or works. Classicist Casey Dué wrote in her article “Get in Formation, This is an Emergency:The Politics of Choral Song and Dance in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Spike Lee’s Chi-raq” that “as an adaptation of Lysistrata, Chi-raq is both a radical reimagining and remarkably faithful” (Casey Dué, 24). There are numerous similarities between the two movies the main character being name Lysistrata, the two performances following roughly the same plot and structure, and much more. It is no secret that Chi-Raq is an adaptation of the Ancient Greek Comedy Lysistrata. I want to show the value of adaptation in this case, as well as how Lee uses sex, violence, and imagery to convey his message within the movie. ![]() Chi-Raq (2015) is a modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata which was written in the 5 th Century BCE, written by Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott and directed by Lee. ![]()
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