Examining Adaptation in The Sweet Hereafter: Theories in Practice

The Sweet Hereafter is a story about a small town affected by a tragedy, originally published in the form of a novel written by Russell Banks (1991) and later adapted into a film of the same title by Atom Egoyan (1998). This narrative was chosen for examination on this website because of the way in which it was adapted as well as the similarities and differences that occur between the two finished works. Both the film and the narrative depict the same story; however, each approaches it from a different angle and utilizes a slightly different discourse. The information provided on the pages of this hypertext seek to separate the underlying story of The Sweet Hereafter from the ways in which it has been told (discourse) as well as to demonstrate how various theories of narrativity and film adaptation can be applied to both the film and the novel.