Stage Adaptations from Literary Texts as Intersemiotic Adaptation

Roman Jakobson's three-fold classification of translation has been recognized as a turning point in translation studies. Though its legacy endures, it is now necessary to reconsider this classification due to the evolving text definition. The following attempts by later scholars to reconsider his threefold taxonomy are significant to demonstrate "Jakobson’s tripartition is not sufficient for discerning the cultural variety of translation processes, although it has provided its conceptual basis" (Torop, 2008, p. 256). Given its revisited versions, intersemiotic translation may not necessarily be restricted to the translation of a verbal sign into non-verbal sign systems since the binary opposition between verbal and non-verbal signs has recently been problematized with multimedia forms. 
Although adaptations from literary works to multimodal texts such as film, music, opera, and theater can frequently be encountered, attempts to assess these activities within the context of intersemiotic translation might be regarded as a relatively recent area of study. Since this type of re-creation involves the transformation from a single language system into a text created by multimodal forms -light, stage design, choreography, actor gestures, music- the translation logic suggests a different procedure. The purpose of this essay is to argue that stage adaptations from literary works can be viewed as intersemiotic translations and can be named as intersemiotic adaptation since the practice encompasses both intersemiotic translation and adaptation.