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1981
Volume 17, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1753-6421
  • E-ISSN: 1753-643X

Abstract

This article uses the self-performances of characters in Dashiell Hammett’s novel to advance four propositions about the novel and its three screen adaptations: that Brigid O’Shaughnessy, the novel’s most often remarked role-player, is joined by Sam Spade and most of its other characters in self-performance; that the novel and its first two screen adaptations, and , treat Spade’s self-performance in three different ways; that Spade’s theatricality in the first two of these adaptations cannot be attributed to Brigid’s behaviour because it predates his first meeting with her; and that the characters’ inveterate habit of self-performance in all versions of Hammett’s story have important implications for the status of adaptations as performances of the texts they adapt.

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2024-07-22
2024-10-12
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