"Do not fade, do not wither, do not grow old" : En adaptionsanalys av tid och rum i Sally Potters Orlando (1992)

Sammanfattning: For almost a century, Virginia Woolf has enchanted readers all over the world with her novel about the gender fluid and time travelling character Orlando. British director Sally Potter adapted Orlando into film in 1992, and her adaptation has since gained immense fame and a continuous presence in world cinema. Potter's Orlando has been the object of a great deal of scholarly interest. However, previous research has predominantly focused on questions of gender and sexuality. Considerably underdiscussed is the film's fascinating conception of time and space. This thesis therefore sets out to analyze Sally Potter's Orlando in order to demonstrate how time and space is shaped in the film.  Theories developed by George Bluestone and André Bazin form the theoretical framework of this thesis. Through a close reading of the film, this thesis demonstrates that Potter establishes an unconventional temporality and spatiality through constructing a nonlinear, often contradictory temporality conveyed through contrasts between the organic and the fantastic, the real and the fictitious. Furthermore, the analysis finds that spatiality in Potter's Orlando is presented as multidimensional, allowing certain characters the possibility to inhabit a "fluid spatiality". Through presenting the past and the present as fused, Potter's Orlando can be understood through the optics of Bluestone's concept of "the flux of time" and Henri Bergsons la durée réelle. Simultaneously, breaks in the narrative presented through intertitles can be read as representing Bergsons idea of l'étendu, while also establishing a tangible spatiality.