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Authorship and Scales of Adaptation in Chillers

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Patricia Highsmith on Screen

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture ((PSADVC))

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Abstract

In the late 1980s, a joint French-English venture set out to produce authorized adaptations of a number of Patricia Highsmith stories for a TV series called Chillers (Mistress of Suspense in the UK). All twelve episodes were hosted by Anthony Perkins and adapted by a different writer and directed by a different director; consequently, the series varies in thematic concern and artistic achievement. While the series evokes a certain continuity in adapting Highsmith’s themes into a European context, this chapter indicates the ways multivalent authorship—as in a television production—operates more palpably and more chaotically in adaptations than in other narratives.

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Correspondence to Kristopher Mecholsky .

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Mecholsky, K. (2018). Authorship and Scales of Adaptation in Chillers. In: Schwanebeck, W., McFarland, D. (eds) Patricia Highsmith on Screen. Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96050-0_13

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