ABSTRACT
Various media narratives contribute to the construction of age both implicitly and explicitly. By combining adaptation theory and age studies, this chapter lays bare how narrative and stylistic features shape the (de)construction of age. Through a media-conscious analysis of David Almond’s novel Skellig and its film adaptation, the authors demonstrate that transmedial elements and medium-specific techniques have the affordances to lay bare the age norms they have internalised. Apart from characterisation through a narrator’s comments or the casting of different characters, media may also entail other age-related expectations, such as age-appropriate genre scripts. Close textual and visual analysis of the novel and its mediation on screen offer the building blocks for a discussion of age norms and expectations and the way these are framed, adapted, or appropriated.
