The essays in this volume seek to expose the scandals of adaptation. Some of them focus on specific adaptations that have been considered scandalous because they portray characters acting in ways that give scandal, because they are thought to betray the values enshrined in the texts they adapt, because their composition or reception raises scandalous possibilities those adapted texts had repressed, or because they challenge their audiences in ways those texts had never thought to do. Others consider more general questions arising from the proposition that all adaptation is a scandalous practice that confronts audiences with provocative questions about bowdlerizing, ethics, censorship, contagion, screenwriting, and history. The collection offers a challenge to the continued marginalization of adaptations and adaptation studies and an invitation to change their position by embracing rather than downplaying their ability to scandalize the institutions they affront.
"The Scandal of Adaptation, edited by Thomas Leitch, offers a new and provocative critical lens through which to view the processes of adaptation ... . scandals of adaptation are not only expertly examined in this volume, but also each contributor pries open new areas of inquiry for scholars to explore other scandalous adaptations. ... this collection's novel framing of scandal alongside adaptation serves to thrust adaptation studies to the centre of the cultural conversation, where it belongs." (Erica Moulton, Adaptation, November 25, 2023)