ABSTRACT

This chapter considers a series of case studies, arguably more intertextual than adaptational by nature, in order to develop further the concept of adaptation rather than concentrate on the specifics of the case studies themselves only. It contributes to the development of adaptation studies through a discussion and analysis of notions and displays of identity through adaptation. While the role the archive plays is important for understanding, appreciation and categorisation of adaptation, original, popular and canonical texts, to list but a few, the confines of the chapter mean that such concerns can only be alluded to. The story of William Ellsworth Robinson/Chung Ling Soo helps conceptualise the way one can think of identity in terms of adaptation or, indeed, adaptation in terms of identity, and what follows is an attempt to unpick the interwoven nature of adaptation, imitation, mimicry and the performance of (imagined) identity further.