Azra Ghandeharion - Associate Professor in Literature and Cultural Studies,Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,

Media is building one of the most important influences of our lives, shaping, revising and testing our values. The adaptation of literary works on silver screen is no exception It is important to mention that being faithful to the original work, has been seriously challenged by the scholars in the realm of adaptation studies to the extent that accuracy has never been the criteria for evaluation, especially in the second decade of the 21st century. Benefitting from the model introduced by Kress and van Leeuwen (2001) regarding the social dimension of semiotics, this paper shows how the apparently dissimilar traditions of American and Iranian art is conjoined in the Iranian adaptation of American dramatists. This research aims to analyze two cinematic adaptations of Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie (1944) in America and in Iran. Hollywood, almost instantly, adapted the play under the same title with the help of eminent movie stars and a renowned director, Irving Rapper (1950). However, it took more than 60 years for Glass Menagerie to be adapted as Here without Me by Bahram Tavakoli (2011) in Iran. Focusing on two adaptations of Tennessee Williams, this research reveals how semiotic sings in the movies, expose the social concerns of the time rather than the issues addressed by the playwright. From semiotic point of view, the patriarchal ideology in America of the 1950s and Hollywood obsession with happy ending is replaced by a powerful mother-figure and class struggle in Iran of the 2010s. By deciphering the codes in the two adaptations, it is concluded that Tavakoli’s Here without Me goes beyond indigenization while Rapper’s Glass Menagerie is mostly bound to the Hollywood status quo and hence remained unknown to both the Iranian audience and the fans of Hollywood classics.

Adaptation studies, Social Semiotics, Visual communication, Tennessee Williams, Hollywood, Iranian Cinema