REBRANDING LOUISA MAY ALCOTT FOR MODERN TIMES: THE FILM ADAPTATIONS OF LITTLE WOMEN
REBRANDING LOUISA MAY ALCOTT FOR MODERN TIMES: THE FILM ADAPTATIONS OF LITTLE WOMEN

Summary/Abstract: Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868) has proved her most enduring and significant novel which has never been out of print since its original publication. This novel is considered a classic of American and world literature. Moreover, Little Women has also inspired numerous film and television adaptations. This paper represents a compare‐and‐contrast analysis of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women (1868‐1869) and its film adaptations, specifically the 1933, 1994, and 2019 versions. The research relies on Linda Hutcheon and Robert Stam’s definitions and meanings of adaptation. According to Hutcheon, adaptation has an overt relationship with its source‐text but aims to transform it and turn it into something of its own. Starting from the observation that the film adaptations under discussion use Alcott’s Little Women as their basis, we offer evidence that their value and novelty is in how they reinterpret the novel and adapt it to their own cultural and historical contexts. Accordingly, the achievement of these adaptations should not be based upon the extent of their fidelity to the original text, but on the directors’ ability to create something new, original, and their own out of a timeless classic. As for the three film adaptations under discussion, they all suggest a different reading and contextualising of Alcott’s most famous and endurable novel.

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