| dc.description.abstract | In this comparative study research was done into the ways in which youth novels were transformed into a youth series on TV, in order to compile a transformation model. The Afrikaans youth novels Die verklikker and Twee wenners by Marilee McCallaghan and the TV youth series Wenners, that was based on these stories, were used for this comparison. The texts (youth novels and TV script/text) were analysed and interpreted, and the variants and constants that were found in the comparison were used to compile a model according to which the transformation precedes were deduced. The model that had been compiled applies only to this study, as all stories differ and are unique in themselves, and therefore the model has to be adapted for each adaptation and production of a youth series (book) to a TV youth series. In both the youth novels, Die verklikker and Twee wenners as well as in the TV youth series Wenners all the main characters, and especially the two main characters Carl and Jackie, show identity development. Regarding their social identity Carl and Jackie are constantly aware of their positions in the smaller community of the orphanage, and specifically regarding the other characters and their positive and negative social roles. With regard to their personal identities, both Carl and Jackie had established a feeling of continuity in their existence despite the fact that their father had passed away and there mother was in a psychiatric clinic, and despite the fact that they were both initially confused and disrupted. They had undergone many changes and had developed, but despite the many changes around them and within themselves they each contained the core of his/her identity. Although they are twins, the analysis of the stories shows that Carl and Jackie had developed a feeling of individual identity - a feeling of individuality or uniqueness. Each of them, as an individual had a subjective experience of these various aspects of identity, which enabled both Carl and to experience a feeling of a unique, whole (complete) person in their own right.
At this stage in the South African television industry many adaptation of books (prose) to film are made, although it is not done for television on a regular base in Afrikaans. The adaptation of a youth novel to a TV series might inspire the adolescent who is already watching the series to read the book from which the adaptation was made. This, in turn, may lead to a possible new edition of the relevant book, as well as the possible rebroadcast, or even the manufacturing of a new version of the current series, depending on its popularity. In the event of a new production of the series the challenge would indeed be not to be the same as its predecessor, but to convey the theme of the story within a new context. | |
