The Unempty Wasps' Nest: Kubrick's The Shining, Adaptation, Chance, Interpretation

Commencing with Freud's observation that 'rational' and 'paranoiac' modes of reading both tend to eliminate issues of chance, this paper seeks to examine whether adaptation studies can fair any better. Focusing on the metafigure of the unempty wasps' nest in Stephen King's The Shining, the paper explores the significance of the related tropes of emptying and refilling. These tropes allow for an articulation of a non-teleological approach to adaptations such as Kubrick's. This approach fosters a two-way, intertextual model which allows us to reintegrate the figure of the unempty wasps' nest, which was cut from Kubrick's version, back into our interpretation of his film. The figure opens up Kubrick's fascinating examination of vision and perception in the context of its adaptation of King's techniques of internal monologue, while also ultimately prompting a methodological approach which seeks for illumination rather than interpretive mastery, a method which is capable of working productively with intentional and unintentional or 'chance' meaning.