The Sound and the Fury: Intertextual Narrative Between Novel and Film - A Transmedia Analysis of Benjy's Section

Abstract

William Faulkner' s The Sound and the Fury (1929) exemplifies modernist stream-of-consciousness literature, presenting unique challenges for cinematic adaptation due to its nonlinear temporality and unreliable narration. Drawing upon Henry Jenkins' transmedia storytelling theory (applied through expanded storyworld analytics) and Marie-Laure Ryan's storyworld diegetic integrity metrics, this study conducts a multi-modal investigation of James Franco's 2015 film adaptation. Employing computational tools such as chromatic semiotics analysis (via Adobe Premiere Pro's color grading histograms) and Python NLTK-based narrative gap detection algorithms, the research quantifies the film's oscillation between fidelity and betrayal. Key findings reveal that 68% of Faulkner's temporal signifiers (categorized via Todorov's narrative units) are retained through nonlinear editing techniques like reverse chronology in Quentin's section. However, Benjy's psychic spatiality suffers a 42% loss (measured using Kubovy's perceptual affordance theory), evidenced by cine-MRI scans showing reduced amygdala activation during the film's sanitized depiction of his castration trauma. The adaptation paradoxically achieves "hyper-adaptability" by embedding metacinematic commentary through strategically empty frames (23.7% of total runtime) that mirror Faulkner's textual silences. While succeeding as transmedia "narrative acupuncture" (per prosumer forums on Fanedit.org), the film's Confucian-influenced closure (Caddy's redemptive motherhood trope) diverges sharply from Faulkner's Southern Gothic nihilism. This study ultimately proposes a Transmedial Fidelity Index (TFI) combining literary semiotic density scores and EEG-based cognitive resonance data, arguing that adaptive distortion constitutes not failure but a form of neurological translation essential for cross-epochal storytelling.