Reduction, Addition, and Variation in the Dialogue Ecranization of the Novel and Film Toba Dreams

Abstract

Ecranization, the transposition of a literary work to film, almost always alters dialogue, yet dialogue is rarely the primary unit of analysis in Indonesian ecranization scholarship, which has concentrated instead on plot, character, and setting. This article examines the entire dialogue of the 2015 novel and film Toba Dreams to describe how the two versions differ and to identify the narrative functions those differences serve. Working from Eneste's typology of ecranization change together with Damono's concept of media transposition and Eriyanto's story-plot distinction, the study comprehensively mapped every dialogue exchange across the 248-page novel and 140-minute film according to story and plot sequence, classified each pair as reduction, addition, variation, or similarity, and cross-checked classifications among three researchers. Reduction was the most frequent type of change, followed by addition and then variation, while identical dialogue occurred only rarely and in short exchanges. Reduction served durational and expository economy; addition strengthened dramatic tension, Batak cultural locality, and scene transition; variation aligned dialogue with the director's characterization choices. These findings show that dialogue ecranization is not a mechanical transcription of written speech but a creative negotiation that nonetheless preserves the novel's narrative essence, and they extend Eneste's framework, developed principally for plot and character, to dialogue as a distinct and comprehensively analyzable unit of adaptation.