Abstract
The article is devoted to the latest phenomenon of adapting contemporary Polish literature into film. As the author assumes, starting from Polish-Russian War (2009), Polish filmmakers have been increasingly interested in adapting narratively and stylistically complex prose, which seems to be rather difficult to express using the language of film. This new trend raises the question of how contemporary adaptation studies should look. The author analyzes adaptations taking into account four aspects of this new phenomenon: 1) collaboration between writers and filmmakers, 2) metareferences in film to the literary medium, 3) multidirectional references and inspirations between literature and film, 4) dialogue between literary texts and their film adaptations. To describe this new trend, the author refers to the contemporary field of adaptation studies. He characterizes writers such as Jakub Żulczyk and Dorota Masłowska as “multiplatform authors” and shows their complex film activities. The author argues that in the latest adaptations, such as Polish-Russian War, The Mighty Angel (2013) and Inni Ludzie (en. Other People), filmmakers emphasize the literary character of the original. These examples also show that intermediality of contemporary works of art encompasses a number of other media, such as music and theater. However, the author opposes the scholars specializing in adaptation studies who radically reject textual analyses and medium specificity research. In his opinion, one of the most important tasks facing contemporary comparative literature and film studies is to characterize the way in which film discourse transforms, reduces, or extends the meanings of literary works, placing stories in a different media context. Keywords: film adaptation, adaptation studies, contemporary Polish literature, Polish writers, transmediality, intermediality