Palimpsestuous relationships and textually transmitted dis-ease : Remaking The Body Snatchers (1956, 1978, 1993 and 2007)

Abstract : While many critics have explored changing cultural and gender norms in various film adaptations of Jack Finney's 1955 novel, The Body Snatchers, less critical attention has been paid to the cultural influences surrounding the production of these films, or to audience reception at the time of their release. This study will examine how the production and reception of each successive adaptation reflects changing forms of sociocultural malaise, while at the same time incorporating elements of previous film texts in those production choices and critical readings. If, as Robert Stam has suggested, the dialogic interplay between texts creates a kind of "textually transmitted dis-ease,"(Stam 2005), what is it about Finney's novel that appeals to filmmakers across four generations, and how does each adaptation reflect its cultural climate in terms of production and reception?