Cover not available

In:Where is Adaptation?: Mapping cultures, texts, and contexts
Edited by Casie Hermansson and Janet Zepernick
[FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures 9] 2018
► pp. 343–364

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 20
Where does the “meta” go in adapting children’s metafiction to the screen?

The case of “A Series of Unfortunate Events”

Published online: 16 October 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/fillm.9.21her
Article outline
  • Considering the metafictional source: Daniel Handler’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
  • Metafilmic adaptation: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
  • Explicit meta-adaptation: Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017)
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (65)
References
Anstey, Michèle. 2002. “‘It’s Not All Black and White’: Postmodern Picture Books and New Literacies.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45 (6): 444–457. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, Sara. 2013. “Performative Metafiction: Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler and The End of A Series of Unfortunate Events.” The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children’s Literature 17 (1). [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bayer, Gerd. 2010. “On Filming Metafiction: John Fowles’s Unpublished ‘The Last Chapter’ and the Road to Postmodern Cinema.” English Studies 91 (8): 893–906.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buchbinder, David. 2011. “From ‘Wizard’ to ‘Wicked’: Adaptation Theory and Young Adult Fiction.” In Contemporary Children’s Literature and Film: Engaging with Theory, edited by Kerry Mallan and Clare Bradford, 127–146. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bullen, Elizabeth E. 2008. “Power of Darkness: Narrative and Biographical Reflexivity in A Series of Unfortunate Events.” International Research in Children’s Literature 1 (2): 200–212.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butt, Bruce. 2003. “‘He’s Behind You!’: Reflections on Repetition and Predictability in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” Children’s Literature in Education 34 (4): 277–286.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cadden, Mike. 2005. “Children’s Stories (Narratives Written for Children).” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, edited by David Herman, Manfred Jahn, and Marie-Laure Ryan, 59–60. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cartmell, Deborah. 2007. “Adapting Children’s Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen, edited by Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan, 167–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cartmell, Deborah and Imelda Whelehan. 2005. “Harry Potter and the Fidelity Debate.” In Books in Motion: Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship, edited by Mireia Aragay, 37–49. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cox, Carole. 1982. “Children’s Films: The Literature Connection.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 7 (3): 10–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dällenbach, Lucien. 1989. The Mirror in the Text. Translated by Jeremy Whiteley and Emma Hughes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dresang, Eliza T. 1999. Radical Change: Books for Youth in a Digital Age. New York: H.W. Wilson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ebert, Roger. 2004. A Review of “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” Roger Ebert, December 16. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eidsvik, Charles. (1974) 1977. “Soft Edges: The Art of Literature, the Medium of Film.” In Film and/as Literature, edited by John Harrington, 306–313. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geraghty, Christine. 2008. Now a Major Motion Picture: Film Adaptations of Literature and Drama. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2009) 2012. “Foregrounding the Media: Atonement (2007) as an Adaptation.” In A Companion to Literature, Film, and Adaptation, edited by Deborah Cartmell, 359–373. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldstone, Bette P. 2001–2002. “Whaz Up with Our Books? Changing Picture Book Codes and Teaching Implications.” The Reading Teacher 55 (4): 362–370. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Handler, Daniel. 1999a. The Bad Beginning. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999b. The Reptile Room. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000a. The Wide Window. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000b. The Miserable Mill. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. The Vile Village. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. The End. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hauthal, Janine. 2009. “When Metadrama is Turned into Metafilm: A Media-Comparative Approach to Metareference,” In Metareference in the Arts and Media: Theory and Case Studies, edited by Werner Wolf, 569–589. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hintz, Carrie and Eric L. Tribunella. 2013. Reading Children’s Literature: A Critical Introduction. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hutcheon, Linda. 1980. Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox. New York: Methuen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knickerbocker, Joan L. and Martha A. Brueggeman. 2008. “Making Room on the Shelf: The Place of Postmodern Young Adult Novels in the Curriculum.” American Secondary Education 37 (1): 65–79.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina. 2013. “Paratexts in Children’s Films and the Concept of Meta-Filmic Awareness.” Journal of Educational Memory, Media, and Society 5 (2): 108–123.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. 2004. Dir. Brad Silberling. Film. Paramount Pictures.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1950) 1998. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. London: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 2005. Dir. Andrew Adamson. Film. Walden Media, Walt Disney Pictures.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mackey, Margaret. 1990. “Metafiction for Beginners: Allan Ahlberg’s ‘Ten in a Bed.’” Children’s Literature in Education 21 (3): 179–187.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mallan, Kerry and Clare Bradford. 2011. Contemporary Children’s Literature and Film: Engaging with Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Cathlena. 2009. “Charlotte’s Weblog: Media Transformation and the Intertextual Web of Children’s Culture.” In Adaptation in Contemporary Culture: Textual Infidelities, edited by Rachel Carroll, 85–95. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McAllister, Cheryl. 2009. “Oversimplification in the Adaptation of Children’s Literature to Film.” Master’s Thesis. University of Alberta, Canada.
McAlone, Nathan. 2017. “Critics Say Netflix is Bad for Movies: Here’s What They are Missing About its Strategy.” Business Insider, May 22. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCallum, Robyn. 2008. “Would I Lie to You? Metalepsis and Modal Disruption in Some ‘True’ Fairy Tales.” In Postmodern Picturebooks: Play, Parody, and Self-Referentiality, edited by Lawrence R. Sipe and Sylvia Pantaleo, 180–192. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moss, Joyce and George Wilson, eds. 1992. From Page to Screen: Children’s and Young Adult Books on Film and Video. Detroit, MI: Gale Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nelson, Claudia. 2006. “Writing the Reader: The Literary Child in and Beyond the Book.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 31 (2): 222–236.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Netflix Subscriber List. 2017. “Coming soon … an extremely upsetting new show from Netflix.” January 6. Email.
Nikolajeva, Maria. 1998. “Exit Children’s Literature?” The Lion and the Unicorn 22 (2): 221–236.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikolajeva, Maria and Carole Scott. 2001. How Picturebooks Work. New York: Garland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ousley, Laurie. 2007. “‘Well-Read People are Less Likely to be Evil’: Intellectual Development and Justice in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” In To See the Wizard: Politics and the Literature of Children, edited by Laurie Ousley, 297–314. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pantaleo, Sylvia. 2004. “Young Children Interpret the Metafictive in Anthony Browne’s Voices in the Park.” Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 4 (2): 211–233.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Young Children Engage with the Metafictive in Picture Books.” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 28 (1): 19–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Readers and Writers as Intertexts: Exploring the Intertextualities in Student Writing.” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 29 (2): 163–181.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “The Influence of Postmodern Picturebooks on Three Boys’ Narrative Competence.” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 32 (3): 191–210.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Mutinous Fiction: Narrative and Illustrative Metalepsis in Three Postmodern Picturebooks.” Children’s Literature in Education 41 (1): 12–27.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “The Metafictive Nature of Postmodern Picturebooks.” The Reading Teacher 67 (5): 324–332.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
paramitch. 2016. Untitled comment on Ebert, Review of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. October 14. [URL].
Philpot, Don K. 2005. “Children’s Metafiction, Readers and Reading: Building Thematic Models of Narrative Comprehension.” Children’s Literature in Education 36 (2): 141–159.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Russell, Danielle. 2010. “Familiarity Breeds a Following: Transcending the Formulaic in the Snicket Series.” In Telling Children’s Stories, edited by Mike Cadden, 22–43. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
A Series of Unfortunate Events. 2017. Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld Mark Palansky and Bo Welch. Television. Netflix.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singerman, Alan J. 2001. “ Jacques le fataliste on Film: From Metafiction to Metacinema.” In Eighteenth-Century Fiction on Screen, edited by Robert Mayer, 123–138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robert Stam. 1992. Reflexivity in Film and Literature: From Don Quixote to Jean-Luc Godard. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Literature through Film: Realism, Magic and the Art of Adaptation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sutherland-Smith, Wendy. 2002. “Weaving the Literacy Web: Changes in Reading from Page to Screen.” The Reading Teacher 55 (7): 662–669. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sutton, Roger. 2004. “‘The Red Book’ and ‘Into the Forest’: Metafiction for Beginners.” The New York Times Book Review, November 14. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tartaglione, Nancy. 2017. “A Fest Divided: Netflix Controversy Clouds Cannes; Will France Embrace Change?” Deadline, May 19. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tiffany, Kaitlyn. 2017. “Netflix CEO Addresses Cannes Controversy: ‘Sometimes the Establishment is Clumsy.’ He also called Netflix ‘the insurgents.’” TheVerge, May 31. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trites, Roberta Seelinger. 1994. “Manifold Narratives: Metafiction and Ideology in Picture Books.” Children’s Literature in Education 25 (4): 225–242.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waugh, Patricia. 1984. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. New York: Methen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wojcik-Andrews, Ian. 2000. Children’s Films: History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory. New York: Garland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Voigts-Virchow, Eckart. 2009. “Metadaptation: Adaptation and Intermediality – Cock and Bull.” Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance 2 (2): 137–152.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Young, Brian Patrick. 2011. “Cinematic Reflexivity”: Postmodernism and the Contemporary Metafilm. PhD Diss. University of California Davis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Duncan, Daniel
2025.  Variation in fictional dialogue in A Series of Unfortunate Events . Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 34:3 ► pp. 248 ff. DOI logo
Hunter, Madeleine
2019. In Medias Res: The Remediation of Time in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. In The Palgrave Handbook of Children's Film and Television, ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue