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Study Program of English Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies (FCS) Universitas Brawijaya (UB) held online biweekly discussions through the Zoom application with Yusri Fajar, M.A. as the speaker. This activity was held on Tuesday (7/28/2020) at 1 to 3 p.m., attended by lecturers and also students of the Study Program of English Literature FCS UB.
This activity discussed the Ecranisation and Adaptation of Literature to Audio-Visual Media (Films and Songs). The examples of the ecranisation including adapting films into novels or vice versa, diverting poetry into songs, and so on.
The first thing to discuss was the massive diversions of literature, about 85% of mainstream films were adaptations of literary works, especially novels and drama scripts (Welsh, 2007). The films adapted from novels will attract people to watch the film more. Filmmakers can also get more benefits, for example, the novel Siti Nurbaya. The novel was turned into a film and lots of people are curious to see how the scene is.
The journey of the ecranisation and adaptation of literature in Indonesia itself began during the Dutch East Indies colonial period. At that time, those who were diverted were “Eulis Atjih” (1927), “Nyai Dasima” (1929), “Siti Noerbaya” (1941), and so on. Then at the time of Post-Independence (Old Order and New Order), there were “Bawang Merah dan Bawang Putih” (1953), “Lupus” (1987), and many more. At the time of Post-Reformation-Recent, which were adapted songs from Indonesian poets, Siniar (podcast), literary plays (short stories and novels) in 2020 (Ministry of Education and Culture).
The rules for literature adaptation to the film include (1) not owing to the original text, (2) the good parts must be maintained, the bad ones must be removed, and (3) follow the storytelling style in the film (Krevolin, 2003: 10-20).
The advantage of the literary adaptation is that the adapted literary work will be increasingly recognized, the writers get feedback and the creation of other “versions” of adapted literary works. The disadvantage is that the aura of literary works becomes degraded, the writers and the public can be disappointed if the adaptation results do not represent the values that are fought for in literary works.
The adaptation of literary works into songs, for example, Kerabat SWARA which adapted Tengsoe Tjahjono’s poems with the theme of political protest into songs in the album entitled “Sengaja Lupa”. One of the poems in this album is “Risiko Suara” written by Tengsoe in 1998: “To say truly is worship because the tongue belongs to God but in this country, the truth is iron bars”. Tengsoe Tjahjono and also Kerabat SWARA have built social relations in the literary community in Malang since 2010. (trans. DTS/ed. MSH/PR FCS)
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