Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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We NEED to talk about Emerald Fennel's Wuthering Heights | Faithful Adaptations and Rage Bait

An analysis of the trailer to Emerald Fennel's adaptation of Wuthering Heights, and the ways in whcih the online bookish world reacted to said trailer through the lens of adaptation theory. How ragebait marketing may have been the intended purpose of the trailer, to the rise of prudishness in online spaces through to whether or not a film adaptation can ever be truly faithful to the book.

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#emeraldfennell #wutheringheights #adaptationtheory #literaryanalysis #videoessay #literarycriticism

Chapters
0:00 - Intro
1:13 - ragbait
6:21 - prudishness
13:07 - adaptation theory

Sources
Emerald Fennell
irishtimes.com/culture/film/2025/09/14/donald-clarke-the-outrage-over-emerald-fennells-wuthering-heights-keeps-boiling-she-must-be-delighted
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yel29rvy8o
yorkshirepost.co.uk/arts-and-culture/rough-and-vulgar-wuthering-heights-gets-a-little-rougher-1937158

Wuthering Heights
jstor.org/stable/4316438?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
jstor.org/stable/40963185?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
jstor.org/stable/20026781?searchText=wuthering+heights+obscenity&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dwuthering%2Bheights%2Bobscenity%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A212cdf9c84b695529afed596cb1d4607&seq=1

Ragebait
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gp555xy5ro
fortune.com/2025/08/29/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-elf-matt-rife-ragebait-advertising-marketing
tugagency.com/tug-life/tug-blog/2025/09/29/rage-bait-the-art-of-manipulating-emotion-in-marketing
subsign.co/stories/the-rise-of-rage-bait-in-brand-marketing
briscoepr.co.uk/why-brands-keep-using-rage-bait-marketing-in-2025-and-why-its-a-risky-move
youtube.com/watch?v=wJt6T1MG5gA&pp=ygUdc3lkbmV5IHN3ZWVuZXkgbWF0dCBiZXJuc3RlaW4%3D

Prudishness
slate.com/human-interest/2022/04/gen-z-generation-sex-abstience-puriteen-research-studies.html
rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/puriteens-sex-negative-lgbtq-pride-tiktok-twitter-1180208
vox.com/the-goods/2021/3/2/22308197/cancel-porn-tiktok-onlyfans-sex-work
avclub.com/gen-z-tv-movies-less-sex-survey-1850962923
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/feb/02/it-stopped-me-having-sex-for-a-year-why-generation-z-is-turning-its-back-on-sex-positive-feminism

Adaptation Theory
vulture.com/article/faithful-adaptation-is-not-real.html
independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/but-it-s-nothing-like-the-book-why-film-adaptations-rarely-stay-faithful-a7058271.html
jstor.org/stable/43797393?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
jstor.org/stable/23126342?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
jstor.org/stable/43797653?searchText=faithful%20film%20adaptations&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dfaithful%2Bfilm%2Badaptations%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ae8f30722c6efad7cf4c1b1617f3728d7