Remixing the Classics: Digital Adaptation and the Literary and Dramatic Canon

What does the adaptation of literary and dramatic classics look like in an increasingly digital age? How might mixed and virtual realities, immersive and multimedia environments, videogames and creative applications of social media rewrite canonical texts in ways that are provocative and illuminating, but potentially also reductive or limiting? This research network seeks to understand how digital technologies that have emerged in recent decades are being used, or in the future might be used, to engage twenty-first-century audiences in the experience of classic literature and drama (while also creating new works of art in their own right). Through a series of online seminars and a final, hybrid workshop, network members will investigate a central research question: what do new digital technologies bring--artistically, pedagogically, politically--to the re-telling of old stories?

In a 2005 essay for Wired, the novelist William Gibson argued that 'The remix is the very nature of the digital.' Taking existing works of art and turning them into something new is a hallmark of digital creativity, as we have clearly seen in the world of popular music. The fields of literature and drama have likewise experienced major shifts in creative practice as digital technologies have become widespread, with born-digital literary and theatrical works growing in number and influence in recent years. Within academia, a wide body of research into electronic literature and transmedia storytelling has now emerged, though it often focuses on new writing or the relationship between popular culture and its interactive fandoms. Studies of classic works and digital adaptation remain less common, and where they do exist they typically focus on a single author or text. The result has been a rich but at times fragmented field of study.

This network will bring together academic, creative and educational practitioners interested in digital adaptations of classic literature and drama, and in doing so establish an interdisciplinary and cross-professional field that cuts across authors, periods and genres. Through a programme of digitally accessible, public events, members of the network will 1) demonstrate how different digital technologies including videogames and VR, social media and transmedia storytelling, and mixed reality experiences have been used to reimagine classical source material; 2) identify the artistic, political, reputational and financial factors that shape the creation and commissioning of digital reworkings of canonical texts; and 3) outline the benefits and challenges of using these adaptations when teaching literature, drama and literacy in the classroom.

Network events will feature academic and industry speakers from a range of fields, including English, drama, classics, creative arts, education, publishing, libraries, theatre and cultural programming. Through interdisciplinary and cross-professional dialogue, members of the network will investigate digital adaptations from both practical and theoretical perspectives and identify what makes these works successful in different contexts (educational, cultural, academic, financial). The first five meetings (which will be available as captioned recordings following the live event) will explore the affordances of different technologies and the way they reach new audiences, while the final workshop will feature a work-in-progress presentation on the network's findings, a high profile plenary and roundtables with creative practitioners and educators.

The network will culminate in the publication of an open-access special issue of Adaptation, the international journal of the Association of Adaptation Studies (published by OUP), analysing digital remixes as a collective and impactful body of work; two public-facing fact sheets outlining best practice for artists and educators working on digital adaptations; and a third fact sheet outlining best practice for online research exchange.