Abstract

The primary purpose of this thesis is to postulate a working method of critical inquiry into the processes of narrative adaptation by examining the consistencies and ruptures of a story as it moves across representational form. In order to accomplish this, I will draw upon the method of structuralist textual analysis employed by Roland Barthes in his essay S/Z to produce a comparative study of three versions of the Orpheus myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. By reviewing the five codes of meaning described by Barthes in S/Z through the lens of contemporary adaptation theory, I hope to discern a structural basis for the persistence of adapted narrative. By applying these theories to texts in a variety of different media, I will also assess the limitations of Barthes’ methodology, evaluating its utility as a critical tool for post-literary narrative forms.