Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

English

Additional Departmental Affiliation

Theatre and Dance

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This project serves as an extended case study on the adaptability of an aesthetic text into a popular text. It focuses on Gregory Maguire’s original novel Wicked, which drew its inspiration from the universally known land of Oz, and the subsequent stage adaptation by the same name. The first half of the project involves an extensive text-to-stage analysis, delineating the differences between the two mediums. The second half of the project involves an examination of the sequels to the original novel as commodities. Each of the novels is a literary text created for a narrower audience, while the popular text of the musical was created for a wider audience. Each medium of the story, however, functions with its own purpose and can engage in a conversation with the other mediums. The successful transformation of the novel to the musical proves that aesthetic and functional texts can apply to separate yet convergent (or intersecting) audiences, disproving the theory that popular texts are somehow inferior to aesthetic texts.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Dr. Anthony Harkins

Disciplines

Comparative Literature | Other Film and Media Studies

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