Reworked fiction
A reworked fiction is a work of fiction whose author has produced more than one version of it.
| Literature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||
| Oral literature | ||||||
| Major written forms | ||||||
|
||||||
| Prose genres | ||||||
|
||||||
| Poetry genres | ||||||
|
||||||
| Dramatic genres | ||||||
| History | ||||||
| Lists and outlines | ||||||
| Theory and criticism | ||||||
 Literature portal | ||||||
Phenomenon
[edit]There is an element of fortuity involved in acts of human creativity, perhaps especially so in the arts. A literary translator has opined that
The translator’s role, in relation to the original text, has been compared to the roles of other interpretive artists, e.g., of a musician or actor who interprets a work of musical or dramatic art. Translation, especially of a text of any complexity, involves interpretation: choices of wording must be made, which implies interpretation. [...] It is due to the necessity of interpretation that—pace the story about the seventy independent, identical 3rd-century BCE Septuagint translations of biblical Old Testament books into Greek—no translations of a literary work by different hands, or by the same hand at different times, are likely to be identical. (Something similar can be said about the original writings of authors, who have been known to produce more than one version of the same work.)[1]
Indeed, some writers in a genre of fiction writing – such as the novel, novella, short story, microstory, drama, or poem (including the poetry genres: narrative, epic, verse-fable, dramatic, speculative, prose-poetry) – have produced more than one version of a given work of fiction.
Examples
[edit]- Mary Shelley began writing her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1816, completed it in 1817, and published it on 1 January 1818.[2] On 31 October 1831 she published a version that was heavily revised, partly to make the story less radical.
- Walt Whitman first published his poetry collection Leaves of Grass in 1855, then wrote, rewrote, and expanded it until his death in 1892.[3][4] Over four decades, he produced six or nine editions of Leaves of Grass, depending on how they are distinguished. The first edition comprised 12 poems; the last, over 400.
- Edward FitzGerald penned five versions of his poem The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published in 1859, 1868, 1872, 1879, and (posthumously) 1889. Three (the first, second, and fifth) differ substantially; the second and third are almost identical, as are the fourth and fifth.[5]
Quotations
[edit]- Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: "“A work of art is never finished [that is, perfected], only abandoned.”
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Translator's foreword to Bolesław Prus, Pharaoh, translated from the Polish, with foreword and notes, by Christopher Kasparek, an Amazon ebook, 2020.
- ^ Charles Robinson, The Frankenstein Notebooks: A Facsimile Edition, Garland Publishing, volume 1, 1996, p. xxv.
- ^ James E. Miller, Jr., Walt Whitman, New York, Twayne Publishers, 1962, ISBN 9780805707922.
- ^ Colin Burrow, "The Magic Bloomschtick" (review of Harold Bloom, edited by David Mikics, Library of America, October 2019, ISBN 978 1 59853 640 9; 426 pp.), London Review of Books, vol. 41, no. 22 (21 November 2019), pp. 21-25. (p. 21.)
- ^ Christopher Decker, ed., "Introduction: Postscript", Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: A Critical Edition, Charlottesville, Virginia, University Press of Virginia, 1997, ISBN 0-8139-1689-5, p. xlv.