The Grace Note and the Vampire: Adaptation in an Age of Intellectual Property

Abstract

This article attempts to examine in further detail the discourse involved in the difference between adaptation studies and intertextuality. I argue that the field of adaptation studies makes a fundamental but often overlooked assumption in its self-definition: that author and adaptors pre-date the works they are creating. I propose instead that an author doesn’t create a work, but that a work creates an author. This is not universally true, but material in eras and locations in which legal institutions attempt to define authorship. My observation is relevant when considering the modern institution of copyright and the effect IP laws have had on the environment generative of adaptations. The consequences of these effects result in authorship often assigned after the creation of a work and lengthy legal hand-wringing.