DE “A WILDERNESS STATION” PARA EDGE OF MADNESS: O PROCESSO DE ADAPTAÇÃO DO CONTO EPISTOLAR DE ALICE MUNRO POR ANNE WHEELER

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the narrative multiplicity present in the short story “A Wilderness Station” (1994), by Alice Munro, and in the film Edge of Madness (2002), directed by Anne Wheeler. I selected authors who work with cinema (Bordwell, 1985, 2004; Bordwell; Thompson; Smith, 2008, 2020; Speidel, 2012), multiperspectivity (Coste, 1989; Schmid, 2010; Hartner, 2014), and adaptation (Stam, 2000, 2006; Hutcheon, 2013). The first objective is to investigate narrative multiplicity in the short story and the ways in which the Canadian short story writer works with different narrator characters to make the story ambiguous and multiple. The second objective is to verify this same narrative multiplicity in the film, examining the possibilities of interpretation and the resources through which the director makes her work more closed and less ambiguous. The results of the analysis of the adaptation indicate that the epistolary characteristic (with multiple narratives) continues to be a recurring theme in the film, in an expanded form with Mullen's diary entries and Annie's new letters. On the one hand, the short story is open to different interpretations, with multiple narrators and perspectives. No version stands out to the extent that readers can say that it is the only truth. It offers multiple interpretations of the same event, presenting a narrative multiplicity. The various perspectives seem to be more relevant to the story than the alleged murder. On the other hand, its adaptation presents a more closed narrative, with an answer to the mystery and a denial of other possibilities of interpretation. One of the versions of the mystery stands out in the movie version. In this way, the film does not present a narrative multiplicity, as it only allows for one interpretation.