Cat on a Hot, Tin Roof (1958): Transformation of Williams\u27s Text in the Film Medium

The aim of the essay is to show the transformations of Tennessee Williams\u27s play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the transposition to the “big screen“. The article presents the recent trends in adaptation theory according to which a film adaptation is primarily perceived as an autonomous film work of equal status as the original. Recent adaptation theory rejects fidelity to the original as a criterion for evaluation since the adaptation process involves the transposition from one sign system to another and different material and practical contingencies. The film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, transformed in line with the decisions of the censors into the family melodrama that affirms patriarchal order, becomes a “material evidence of shifting intentions“, but also, since it evokes the memories of other movies and bears the stamp of authorship, serves as an example of an open text in constant dialogue with the original. Research of the film version of the play confirms Robert Stam\u27s idea of adaptation as a “hypertext“ which transforms the original i.e. “hypotext“ through selection, emphasis, concretization, actualization and criticism, a text which takes an active attitude towards the original and becomes its rewriting