BA in adaptation

 Bernarda Alba has a lot of adaptations. Set it in Iran, in Pakistan, in Miami, in Scotland. Do it as a musical, a film. I haven't made a list, but there are dozens I've found on google and YouTube in just half an hour.  

Any adaptation automatically creates a palimpsest.  I think of Borges decrying the phenomenon of anachronistic "modern dress" versions of classic literature, in "Pierre Menard." Notice that Borges decries both simplistic ideas: that epochs are the same ... and that they are different. In other words, a false universalism: we can adapt to another setting and the story still works... and a false belief that a work needs to be kept up to date in order to appeal to contemporary audiences. Notice, too, that despite despising such things, Menard counts this anachronism as one of his inspirations. 

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"... Otro es uno de esos libros parasitarios que sitúan a Cristo en un bulevar, a Hamlet en la Cannebiére o a don Quijote en Wall Street. Como todo hombre de buen gusto, Menard abominaba de esos carnavales inútiles, sólo aptos ­decía­ para ocasionar el plebeyo placer del anacronismo o (lo que es peor) para embelesarnos con la idea primaria de que todas las épocas son iguales o de que son distintas."