The (Mis)Paths of the Most Recent Adaptation of the Novel Persuasion, by Jane Austen

the Borders between Literature and Cinema and the anguish of fidelity

Abstract

This article analyzes the most recent film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1818), directed by Carrie Cracknell and released by Netflix in 2022, using a comparative approach grounded in contemporary studies of adaptation and Intermediality. Drawing on debates about fidelity, the article examines the recurring tendency to place literature above cinema and the expectation that films should remain faithful to their source texts, especially when dealing with canonical works such as Austen’s novels. Based on the theoretical contributions of scholars such as Robert Stam (2005, 2006, 2008), Irina Rajewski (2012), Linda Hutcheon (2013), and Maria Cristina Cardoso Ribas (2014), the study understands adaptation as a process of intertextual negotiation and aesthetic and ideological reworking rather than as simple reproduction. The analysis focuses on the film’s narrative and formal choices, such as breaking the fourth wall, first-person narration, and updated language, as well as on the tensions that emerge between Austen’s traditional readers, critical reception, and contemporary audiences. I argue that Cracknell’s adaptation engages in a complex dialogue with today’s media environment, showing how cinematic reinterpretations can speak not only about the literary text that inspires them, but also about the cultural concerns of the present. New adaptations, therefore, reopen debates about canonical texts, even when they generate interpretive dissonance.