Adapting Henry James to the Screen Gender, Fiction, and Film

by Raw, Laurence

• ISBN13: 9780810857070
• ISBN10: 0810857073
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-27
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Summary

One of Henry James's main achievements as a novelist was his ability to demonstrate how the notions of "masculinity" and "femininity" are socially constructed, depending on a variety of contradictory factors: social, political, sexual, and economic. His unique capacity to understand the ideological function of relationships often accepted as "natural" in late nineteenth century culture resulted in works of fiction that impress upon readers the oppressiveness inherent within them. Most adaptations of literary classics, however, tend to be influenced by Hollywood conventions that tend to reinforce dominant notions of gender and heterosexual relations. Adapting a novel for cinema or television is first and foremost a business enterprise, where the screenwriter has to take into account the wishes of conflicting interest groups: producers, stars, directors, and spectators. In Adapting Henry James to The Screen: Gender, Fiction and Film, author Laurence Raw suggests that most James adaptations have sought to shift attention away from the classical narrative to the spectator's interaction with that narrative. Raw demonstrates that while several adaptations have critically engaged with the subject of gender relations, they have often ended up by reinforcing rather than questioning accepted norms. Yet, there are instances where individual directors and/or screenwriters have bucked the trend and directly engaged with what people understand by 'masculine' and 'feminine' behavior, thus focusing on how the notions of 'masculinity' and 'femininity' are socially constructed, not only in the societies represented on screen, but in the spectators' world as well. This book shows how changing priorities affected the ways in which James's novels were translated to the screen, and how they examined the theme of gender relations. Not only does this represent a new departure for adaptation studies (which hitherto has largely focused on issues of textual fidelity), but it is a particularly appropriate methodology for stu

Author Biography

Laurence Raw is a senior lecturer in the Department of American Culture and Literature at Baskent University, Turkey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Introduction	1	(14)
Berkeley Square (1933)	15	(12)
The Lost Moment (1947)	27	(12)
The Heiress (1949)	39	(10)
I'll Never Forget You (1951)	49	(8)
The Innocents (1961)	57	(10)
The Nightcomers (1971)	67	(8)
Daisy Miller (1974)	75	(10)
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) and Somewhere in Time (1980)	85	(10)
The Turn of the Screw (1974)	95	(8)
The Portrait of a Lady (1968) and The Golden Bowl (1972)	103	(14)
The Jolly Corner (1975)	117	(10)
The Europeans (1979) and The Bostonians (1984)	127	(14)
The Turn of the Screw (1989)	141	(8)
The Turn of the Screw (1992)	149	(8)
Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996)	157	(12)
The Wings of the Dove (1997)	169	(12)
Under Heaven (1998)	181	(12)
The Turn of the Screw (1995 and 1999)	193	(12)
The American (1998)	205	(12)
Washington Square (1997)	217	(12)
The House by the Cemetery (1981) and The Haunting of Hell House (1999)	229	(12)
Presence of Mind (1999)	241	(8)
The Golden Bowl (2001)	249	(12)
Conclusion	261	(10)
Bibliography	271	(16)
Index	287	(10)
About the Author	297