AN INTERTEXTUAL ANALYSIS FROM HELEN KELLER'S LIFE STORY TO CINEMA

Since its advent, cinema continues its use of many incidents or works such as novels, comic books, real-life stories, historical facts, theatre, poetry as well as original scripts. Its means of adaptation are by sometimes reflecting these sources quite similarly to the original, sometimes reflecting them directly, and sometimes reflecting them by means of free form. Nowadays, remake films that take the previous films as reference are also in great demand. Especially notable productions are being re-shot as remake films, gaining new meanings by the political and socio-cultural structure of the period in which it exists and thus sustains its popularity. In this study, Black, and My World films, adapted as a remake of The Miracle Worker,and My World, which are adapted from Helen Keller's autobiographical life story, were analyzed comparatively in the context of intertextuality in terms of characters, themes, time and space, storyline, narrative construction, and cultural structure. It is aimed to determine how and by which method the original text was conveyed in the films, and what meanings the similarities and differences revealed in the films. In this respect, real-life stories and their importance in box office success were first mentioned in the adaptation works in American and Turkish cinema, and then the autobiographical Life Story of Helen Keller and the comparison of these three films adapted from this story to cinema were given. The 1962 film The Miracle Worker successfully reflected the period and the story as a film adhering to the original text, while the 2000s film Black and its remake, My World, made some adjustments and changes in the story specifically to the political, cultural and socio-economic structure. Thus, it is understood that the original text continues its popularity today by gaining new meanings in different films.

Keywords

Helen Keller, Adaptation, Remake, The Miracle Worker, Benim Dünyam.