Fiction Adaptation - Sonnets, Decision Making Process, and Poet Research

 Sonnets and Decision Making Process

In order to decide upon the sonnet that I am going to take forward and create visually, I decided to analyse and break down each sonnet. Doing this allowed me to gain a greater understanding of what each sonnet was about. 

I narrowed down the sonnets that I felt spoke to me and then made a final decision from there. The sonnet that I selected was Time does not bring relief (Sonnet II). This sonnet was chosen as I felt I could do the most with regards to this and being able to experiment with it. Using this sonnet, I want to make my adaptation about the impact of sexual assault can have on someone who has experienced it. With violence against women increasingly being a prominent feature within the media, especially since the MeToo movement (Steinberg, 2018), I feel as though it is the right time to make this.

Bibliography:

Steinberg, B. (2018) ‘Media Coverage of Sexual Assault, #MeToo is Rising’ In: Variety 05/10/2018. At: https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/media-coverage-sexual-assault-metoo-1202970077/. (Accessed 25/11/2021)

 Poet Research

With the continuation of gender inequality, particularly in their careers (Atkinson et al., 2020) and the continuing domination in the world of literature by men (Flood, 2013) , I wanted to select a sonnet written by a female, hence the selection of 'Time does not bring relief' (St. Vincent Millay, 1917, cited in Rymer, 2021) by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Figure. 1 Edna St. Vincent Millay in The Guardian

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American 19th and 20th Century Poet. Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry in 1923 (Ong, 2018) and is known for her rebelliousness against the norms and expectations of society. Millay's work was often influenced by her personal life, such as that of her bisexuality, morphine addiction, the loss of her husband, and other goings on in her life (Poetry Foundation, 2021). Due to the topics covered within her work, particularly her work involving feminism and sexuality, Millay was often seen as controversial and it was this controversy that drew people's attention to her work (poets.org, 2021).

Her character and the exploration within her work was another reason behind my choosing of her poem, 'Time does not bring relief' (St. Vincent Millay, 1917, cited in Rymer, 2021)

Bibliography:

Atkinson, C. et al. (2020) 'You Just Had to Get on with it':Exploring the Persistence of Gender Inequality through Women's Career Histories' In: Work, Employment and Society  35 (1) pp.78-96. At: https://journals-sagepub-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1177/0950017020910354 (Accessed 29/11/2021)

Fig. 1 (2018) Edna St. Vincent Millay in The Guardian. At: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/22/edna-st-vincent-millay-poetry (Accessed 29/11/2021)

Flood, A. 2013) 'Men still dominate books world, study shows' In: The Guardian 06/03/2013. At: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/06/men-dominate-books-world-study-vida (Accessed 29/11/2021)

Ong, A. (2018) 'Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry has been eclipsed by her personal life - let's change that' In: The Guardian 22/02/2018. At: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/22/edna-st-vincent-millay-poetry (Accessed 29/11/2021)

Poetry Foundation. (2021) Edna St. Vincent Millay. At: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edna-st-vincent-millay (Accessed 29/11/2021)

Poets.org. (2021) Edna St. Vincent Millay. At: https://poets.org/poet/edna-st-vincent-millay (Accessed 29/11/2021)

Rymer, M. (2021) Fiction Adaptation Lecture Series. [Kent: University for the Creative Arts 25/10/2021].