Literature and Film A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation

by Stam, Robert; Raengo, Alessandra

• ISBN13: 9780631230557
• ISBN10: 0631230556
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-15
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Literature and Film is a superb collection of vibrant essays that chart the history and confluence of literature and film. Bringing together the very latest scholarship in the field, this guide contains astute and readable contributions both theoretical and thematic on the translation of literary into filmic texts. Subjects range from established classics including The Last of the Mohicans, through consecrated genre works like Cape Fear, to contemporary classics such as The English Patient and Beloved. Almost all of the essays are originals, especially composed for this volume, and written by leading international scholars on both literature and film. The book features an ambitious introductory essay tracing the theory and practice of adaptation, providing the ideal entry point for students or scholars exploring this dynamic and multifaceted field.

Author Biography

Robert Stam is University Professor at New York University. His many books include Film Theory: An Introduction (Blackwell, 2000), Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (with Ella Shohat, 1994), and Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism and Film (1989). With Toby Miller, he is the editor of Film and Theory (Blackwell, 2000) and The Blackwell Companion to Film Theory (2000).

Alessandra Raengo is finishing her PhD in the Cinema Studies Department at New York University. Her dissertation explores race and vernacular social criticism in American culture between 1945 and 1968. Among her publications are The Birth of Film Genres (1999) and The Bounds of Representation (2000), both multilingual volumes edited with Leonardo Quaresima and Laura Vichi.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	viii
Notes on Contributors	ix
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation
Robert Stam
1 Improvements and Reparations at Mansfield Park	53	(18)
Tim Watson
2 Keeping the Carcass in Motion: Adaptation and Transmutations of the National in The Last of the Mohicans	71	(15)
Jacquelyn Kilpatrick
3 The Discreet Charm of the Leisure Class: Terence Davies's The House of Mirth	86	(14)
Richard Porton
4 In Search of Adaptation: Proust and Film	100	(11)
Melissa Anderson
5 The Grapes of Wrath: Thematic Emphasis through Visual Style	111	(15)
Vivian C. Sobchack
6 Cape Fear and Trembling: Familial Dread	126	(22)
Kirsten Thompson
7 The Carnival of Repression: German Left-wing Politics and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum	148	(15)
Alexandra Seibel
8 Serial Time: Bluebeard in Stepford	163	(28)
Bliss Cua Lim
9 Boyz N the Hood Chronotopes: Spike Lee, Richard Price, and the Changing Authorship of Clockers	191	(17)
Paula J. Massood
10 Defusing The English Patient	208	(25)
Patrick Deer
11 Carnivals and Goldfish: History and Crisis in The Butcher Boy	233	(19)
Jessica Scarlata
12 Passion or Heartburn? The Uses of Humor in Esquivel's and Arau's Like Water for Chocolate	252	(20)
Dianna C. Niebylski
13 Beloved: The Adaptation of an American Slave Narrative	272	(23)
Mia Mask
14 Oral Traditions, Literature, and Cinema in Africa	295	(18)
Mbye Cham
15 Memory and History in the Politics of Adaptation: Revisiting the Partition of India in Tamas	313	(18)
Ranjani Mazumdar
16 The Written Scene: Writers as Figures of Cinematic Redemption	331	(12)
Paul Arthur
Index	343