Deborah Cartmell

Imelda Whelehan

I. Q. Hunter

Heidi Kaye

Classics in Film and Fiction

Adaptations considers the theoretical and practical difficulties surrounding the translation of a text into film, and the reverse process; the novelisation of films. Through three sets of case studies, the contributors examine the key debates surrounding adaptations: whether screen versions of literary classics can be faithful to the text; if something as capsulated as Jane Austens irony can even be captured on film; whether costume dramas always of their own time and do adaptations remake their parent text to reflect contemporary ideas and concerns. Tracing the complex alterations which texts experience between different media, Adaptations is a unique exploration of the relationship between text and film.

From Text to Screen, Screen to Text

Adaptations

Patterns of production and consumption are one of the foundation stones of media studies in the 1990s. Taking the audience as its starting point, this collection of essays focuses on aspects of audience response, interaction and manipulation in a diverse range of films, from high culture literary adaptations (The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice and Schindler's List) to comic book adaptations (Tank Girl, Judge Dredd) and genre horror movies such as The Shining and Nightmare on Elm Street.. A concluding essay explores the differences and the similarities between adaptations of high and low cultural forms in a mass film media.

Popular Culture and Its Audience

Trash Aesthetics

Lisa Hopkins

Peter J. Smith

Andrew Hiscock

This volume offers an accessible and thought-provoking guide to this major Shakespearean comedy, surveying its key themes and evolving critical preoccupations. It also provides a detailed and up-to-date history of the play's rich stage and screen performance, looking closely at major contemporary performances, including Josie Rourke's film starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones at the Old Vic, and the RSC's recent rebranding of it as a sequel. Moving through to four new critical essays, the guide opens up fresh perspectives, including contemporary directors' deployment of older actors within the lead roles, the play's relationship to Love's Labour's Lost, its presence on Youtube and the ways in which tales and ruses in the play belong to a wider concern with varieties of crime. The volume finishes with a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further research.

Much Ado About Nothing: A Critical Reader

Adaptation studies has historically been neglected in both the English and Film Studies curricula. Reflecting on this, Screen Adaptation celebrates its emergence in the late 20th and 21st centuries and explores the varieties of methodologies and debates within the field. Drawing on approaches from genre studies to transtexuality to cultural materialism, the book examines adaptations of both popular and canonical writers, including William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and J.K.Rowling. Original and provocative, this book will spark new thinking and research in the field of adaptation studies. Mapping the way in which this exciting field has emerged and shifted over the last two decades, the book is also essential reading for students of English Literature and Film.

Impure Cinema

Screen Adaptation

I.Q. Hunter

This innovative book studies how films and texts re-imagine the past, and what it reveals about our contemporary culture.

Reinventing the Past in Film and Fiction

Retrovisions

The study of literature on screen is a growing area of study in schools and universities. Many students have to produce critical essays comparing the novel and film versions of a particular text. The Screen Adaptations series offers a wealth of study material: from the literary context of the original work, through to thought-provoking comparisons of the screen versions, critical commentary and the afterlife of the films. Pride and Prejudice is a classic piece of literature and any new adaptation is a major event. With several well-known TV and film versions available (featuring stars such as Keira Knightley) as well as a Bollywood version, discussions around how these films interpret the story, themes and characters is a popular classroom choice for students and teachers alike. This new title in the Screen Adaptations series, provides a rich source of material to help students understand and write about the reciprocal relationship between film and literature. It offers in-depth analysis of the various screen versions and alternative `readings' as well as critical insight and an interview with writer Andrew Davies, best known for his 1995 BBC adaptation. Following from Shakespeare, Jane Austen on screen is now an established part of literary studies and the volume will conclude with a survey of the growing body of literature in the field.

A close study of the relationship between text and film

Screen Adaptations: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Interpreting Shakespeare on Screen

An in-depth study of the relationship between Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and its various screen versions.

A Close Study of the Relationship Between Text and Film

This Companion offers a multi-disciplinary approach to literature on film and television. Writers are drawn from different backgrounds to consider broad topics, such as the issue of adaptation from novels and plays to the screen, canonical and popular literature, fantasy, genre and adaptations for children. There are also case studies, such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the nineteenth-century novel and modernism, which allow the reader to place adaptations of the work of writers within a wider context. An interview with Andrew Davies, whose work includes Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Bleak House (2005), reveals the practical choices and challenges that face the professional writer and adaptor. The Companion as a whole provides an extensive survey of an increasingly popular field of study.

The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen

Ashley Polasek

The most comprehensive reference text of theoretical and historical discourse on the biopic film The biopic, often viewed as the most reviled of all film genres, traces its origins to the early silent era over a century ago. Receiving little critical attention, biopics are regularly dismissed as superficial, formulaic, and disrespectful of history. Film critics, literary scholars and historians tend to believe that biopics should be artistic, yet accurate, true-to-life representations of their subjects. Moviegoing audiences, however, do not seem to hold similar views; biopics continue to be popular, commercially viable films. Even the genre’s most ardent detractors will admit that these films are often very watchable, particularly due to the performance of the lead actor. It is increasingly common for stars of biographical films to garner critical praise and awards, driving a growing interest in scholarship in the genre. A Companion to the Biopic is the first global and authoritative reference on the subject. Offering theoretical, historical, thematic, and performance-based approaches, this unique volume brings together the work of top scholars to discuss the coverage of the lives of authors, politicians, royalty, criminals, and pop stars through the biopic film. Chapters explore evolving attitudes and divergent perspectives on the genre with topics such as the connections between biopics and literary melodramas, the influence financial concerns have on aesthetic, social, or moral principles, the merger of historical narratives with Hollywood biographies, stereotypes and criticisms of the biopic genre, and more. This volume: Provides a systematic, in-depth analysis of the biopic and considers how the choice of historical subject reflects contemporary issues Places emphasis on films that portray race and gender issues Explores the uneven boundaries of the genre by addressing what is and is not a biopic as well as the ways in which films simultaneously embrace and defy historical authenticity Examines the distinction between reality and ‘the real’ in biographical films Offers a chronological survey of biopics from the beginning of the 20th century A Companion to the Biopic is a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and students of history, film studies, and English literature, as well as those in disciplines that examine interpretations of historical figures

A Companion to the Biopic

The study of literature on screen is a growing area of study in schools and universities. Many students have to produce critical essays comparing the novel and film versions of a particular text. The Screen Adaptations series offers a wealth of study material: from the literary context of the original work, through to thought-provoking comparisons of the screen versions, critical commentary and the afterlife of the films. Pride and Prejudice is a classic piece of literature and any new adaptation is a major event. With several well-known TV and film version available (featuring stars such as Keira Knightley) as well as a Bollywood version, discussions around how these films interpret the story, themes and characters is a popular classroom choice for students and teachers alike. This new title in the Screen Adaptations series, provides a rich source of material to help students understand and write about the reciprocal relationship between film and literature. It offers in-depth analysis of the various screen versions and alternative `readings' as well as critical insight and an interview with writer Andrew Davies, best known for his 1995 BBC adaptation. Following from Shakespeare, Jane Austen on screen is now an established part of literary studies and the volume will conclude with a survey of the growing body of literature in the field.

This is a comprehensive collection of original essays that explorethe aesthetics, economics, and mechanics of movie adaptation, fromthe days of silent cinema to contemporary franchise phenomena.Featuring a range of theoretical approaches, and chapters on thehistorical, ideological and economic aspects of adaptation, thevolume reflects today’s acceptance of intertextuality as avital and progressive cultural force. Incorporates new research in adaptation studies Features a chapter on the Harry Potter franchise, as well asother contemporary perspectives Showcases work by leading Shakespeare adaptation scholars Explores fascinating topics such as ‘unfilmable’texts Includes detailed considerations of Ian McEwan’sAtonement and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Deborah Cartmell

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