Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Film adaptations'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Film adaptations.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Film adaptations.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Houtman, Coral. "Female voice and agency in film adaptations." Thesis, University of Kent, 2003. https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/en/studentthesis/female-voice-and-agency-in-film-adaptations(1c455936-42d5-4ffa-9d8f-3bbf60d568a2).html.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the claim that women write differently from men, and employs a methodology which compares a range of film adaptations with the books from which they are taken. The thesis explores the agency and voice of four novels and their film adaptations, 1 using techniques derived from narrative analysis where "the implied author" is the agency responsible for the overall relationship of narration (story telling) to narrative (story) and is also the "voice" - the rhetoric of the text. Psychoanalysis forms a conceptual framework for exploring the performance of sexual difference in these works authored by women, but directed by men, and for investigating psychological thrillers, where issues of sexuality and desire are dramatised, particularly in relationship to death and the fear of obliteration. The thesis considers the 'gendering' of the texts - how they construe sexual difference, through fantasy and through desire. Lacan's discourse analysis enables a further investigation of the possibilities of hysterical agency driving the narrative; anxiety and uncertainty over gender and sexual difference driving the needs of the characters and the narration, and therefore, by implication, the real author or authors. It also discusses whether this hysteria is performed differently by men and women, due to their different subject positions, and thereby creates a potential link between the implied author of the text, and the gender of the real author(s). The real author, the agent of the text, cannot, in this formulation, be regarded as either sovereign or unified. Rather, I theorise, following Althusser and the performative theory of Judith Butler, that authorial voice is an interpellation. That is, they are called up and placed into a network of norms and parameters where they assume the agency of authorship. Agency is therefore contingent and traumatic, and a text which creates a less causal and individualistic performance of narrative agency might also be able to explore the relationship of gender and sexual difference to agency without slipping into the Freudian flaw of making anatomy destiny. I consider Mrs. Dalloway, as a poetic, non-linear form, a multi-voiced and multi-determined narrative, which creates a very rich female portrait of its central protagonist and a selfconsciously female narrative voice. In addressing the traumas and hysterias of sexual difference, and relating them to the analogous traumas created through the abuse of power in other realms of life, Mrs. Dalloway provides an alternative way of thinking about sexual difference, gender and agency, one that privileges creativity, reparation and the need to come to terms with trauma, whether one is male or female.
2
Faithfull, Denise. "Adaptations : Australian literature to film, 1989-1998." Thesis, Connect to full text, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1771.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2001.Title from title screen (viewed January 22, 2009) Submitted in fullfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philososphy to the Dept. of English, University of Sydney. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.
3
Faithfull, Denise. "Adaptations Australian literature to film, 1989-1998 /." Connect to full text, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1771.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2001.Title from title screen (viewed January 22, 2009) Submitted in fullfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philososphy to the Dept. of English, University of Sydney. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.
4
Pronko, Michael Jackson. "Dickens and film : adaptations in 1930s America." Thesis, University of Kent, 2008. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.499764.
Full text
5
Phillips, Nathan C. "Beyond Fidelity: Teaching Film Adaptations in Secondary Schools." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2007. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1910.pdf.
Full text
6
Firth, Catriona Alison. "'Shadowy copies'? : film adaptations of the Second Austrian Republic." Thesis, Durham University, 2010. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/407/.
Full textAbstract:
For many years adaptation has been passed between literature and film studies, frequently dismissed as ‘shadowy copies’ and parasitic reproductions, the unwanted bastard child of the disciplines searching in vain for an academic home. Despite the emergence of insightful new scholarship into the development of Austrian film in the twentieth century, the role of the adaptation genre within Austria’s film industry and literary landscape remains an academic blind spot. This study aims to address this gap in critical knowledge, reviewing the potential function of filmic adaptations within the field of Austrian studies. Through five case studies of canonical works of post-war Austrian literature, this thesis sets out to establish adaptation both as a critical tool through which to approach literature and as an object of academic interest in its own right. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory and its application in film studies, these studies compare and contrast the position occupied by the film’s implied spectator with the relationship of the implied reader to the literary text. Rereading the novels retrospectively in light of their adaptations, this approach has the ability to ‘light up dark corners’ of the novels, illuminating those aspects hitherto left in the shadows by literary criticism. It will be argued that adaptation is uniquely positioned to hold up a mirror to literary texts, reflecting their concerns not through the filters of established grand narratives and generic taxonomies but through their creative, cinematic reworking of the novels. In challenging those assumptions that have become commonplace within Austrian literary history, this study calls for a more nuanced approach to literature of the Second Republic and proposes adaptation as the means by which this may be achieved.
7
Setiawan, Dwi. "Depoliticisation and repoliticisation in post-colonial Indonesian film adaptations." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/14882.
Full textAbstract:
This study investigates the depoliticisation and repoliticisation in post-colonial Indonesian film adaptations, primarily focusing on Blood and Crown of the Dancer (1983) and The Dancer (2011), the two adaptations of Ahmad Tohari’s novel The Dancer (1982). The investigation is motivated by a series of problems in adaptation studies, namely, the hegemony of Anglo-American texts, the domination of former British colonies in post-colonial adaptation, and the homogenising construct of the East versus the West in most post-colonial criticism. The novel and the film adaptations recount the long, internal struggles between the military and civil society in the Dutch former colony after the independence. What is prevalent yet forgotten in those works and the domestic conflicts that they emulate is the practices of depoliticisation and politicisation, which have regularly been associated with, respectively, the denial of politics by the military regime and the corruption of ‘apolitical’ realms by its political enemies. This thesis aims to show that the depoliticisation and politicisation in the novel and the adaptations are much more subtle and complex than imagined. Incorporating Flinders and Wood’s theory of depoliticisation, Foucault’s principle of discourse, and Bourdieu’s account of capital, the investigation attempts to capture the discursive depoliticisation and politicisation in the texts as well as the interrelated governmental, societal, and personal factors in adaptation. Although the thesis is structured by the three texts, each chapter draws equal attention to the contexts, subjects, and audiences of each work and scrutinises all of them through the lenses of depoliticisation and repoliticisation. The analysis shows that the depoliticisation and politicisation in the texts generally correspond with those in the governmental, societal, private arenas in their respective eras, particularly on the problems of politics, religion, and sexuality. The novel and the first adaptation embody the typical depoliticisation during the Indonesian military era (1966-1998) in which subversive discourses and practices could surface only as a pretext/justification for the regime’s suppression. The second adaptation, however, signifies the heavy politicisation in the early post-military era (1998-2004) and the subtle depoliticisation in the subsequent time in that it simultaneously interrogates and adapts ‘faithfully’ the issues and the conflicting parties in the informing texts and contexts. Although the case studies are rather specific, the chosen texts and approach allow the thesis to deal with broader issues related to the socio-political history of Indonesia, the literary and filmic discourses and practices, and, in relation to the missing first film adaptation, the cultural status of adaptation studies and practices in the country. Despite their obvious focus on domestic affairs, there are traces of Hollywood’s depoliticising models in both adaptations due to the long, predominant influence of American cinema in Indonesia. This fusion of intracultural and intercultural elements, the transdisciplinary political approach, and the insight from the invisible post-colonial country are the major contributions of the thesis to adaptation studies and post-colonial adaptation.
8
Greenberg, Bryan R. "Hollywood and the film development process: The influence of social networks and industry structure on content decisions." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2008. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.
Full text
9
Camarillo, Emmanuel. "Analysis of Character Translations in Film Adaptations of Popular Literature." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/872.
Full textAbstract:
A brief look at the history of film adaptation studies and its terminology. Character differences between a piece of literature and it's film version are compared in three separate case studies. The film adaptations of a graphic novel, a classic novel, and a play are analyzed on the basis of the changes made to specific characters within their respective stories and the effects of those changes on the overall outcome of the film.
10
Parke, Maggie. "Incorporating and considering fans : fan culture in event film adaptations." Thesis, Bangor University, 2013. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/incorporating-and-considering-fans-fan-culture-in-event-film-adaptations(8e849ae8-1f89-4d5f-bf00-e82b7e87e3a7).html.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the specific cross section of two fields of study: fan culture, and 'event film' adaptation (Mm'golis, 2009). Here, I put fonyard evidence of the shifting relationship between filmmakers and fans of a popular adapted wlork, and present new modes of engagement for the fans to the adaptation process facilitated by the Internet. This is an investigation of the pertinent research in the fields of adaptation studies (Naremore, 2000; Stam, 2005; Hutcheon 2006), and fan studies (Jenkins, 1992; Bacon-Smith, 1992; Jancovich, 2003; Booth, 2010) in the digital age. I also present my own practical, ethnographic research from film sets, working with a production company and a film funding body, The Film Agency of Wales, interviews, and fan events for analysis of practical application to provide evidence of the dialectical shift in the fan and filmmaker relationship due in large part to the Internet. I Fans now have unprecedented access to the filmmaking process due to digital media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and the various fan sites and discussion boards that provide immediate information dispersal. The information-sharing abilities and marketing power of fans as well as their immediacy in organizing events and movements can be harnessed and utilized in the adaptation process of the event film . This is affecting filmmaking processes, as many are beginning to incorporate new practices for fan management into their procedures. This thesis examines relevant research on participatory communities, fan culture, and fan management, to argue the new and developing modes of fan interaction and fan influence on event film adaptation. This thesis concludes that the dialectical relationship between the fan and the filmmaker has shifted, as evidenced in the production of the event film
11
Conte, Carolina Siqueira. "Bonds: A Theory Of Appropriation For Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice Realized In Film." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1113337877.
Full text
12
Langlois-Marcotte, Dominic. "Adaptation cinématographique de la nouvelle Femme de lumière de Claude Vallières : scénario, film, démarche de création et réflexion sur la lumière dans le film noir." Thesis, Université Laval, 2011. http://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2011/28116/28116.pdf.
Full text
13
Istomina, Olga. "Vom buch zum film zur frage der adaptation bei Sternberg, Schlöndorff und Tykwer /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4989.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 27, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.
14
Alfred, Ruth Ann. "The effect of censorship on American film adaptations of Shakespearean plays." [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2733.
Full text
15
Besnard-Scott, Laurence. "Translation beyond words : film adaptations of classical myths as reverse ekphrasis." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2017. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.725390.
Full textAbstract:
My PhD thesis proposes to look at film adaptation through a concept derived from ekphrastic discourse in order to delineate a critical space, or ‘ekphrastic third space’, opened up by the process of adaptation. It raises questions about the semiotic dialogue between (moving) image and text, cinema and literature, and how that dialogue is enriched by reconfiguring traditional notions of ekphrasis as ‘reverse ekphrasis’. The chosen case studies - film adaptation of classical myths - reconnect with the origins of ekphrasis as a rhetorical figure, in an attempt to link it with cinema's 'mythical' dimension. The concept of reverse ekphrasis is mediated through a hermeneutic theory of translation which, 1 argue, offers a way of countering overly instrumentalist or transpositional, semiotic readings of film adaptations. The hermeneutic model allows the critic to see all texts as inherently unstable and dialectical; thus opening the way to seeing film adaptations of classical myths as a way of revealing and/or problematising the conditions of production. The ekphrastic third space is therefore not defined by its polarity but by the interlacing occurring in-between; its premise is founded on an unpredictable process’vyhich adjusts itself as a territory for creativity and critical thinking, not on a finality based on a logic of containment. The image-text relationship is thus envisaged not only as a relationship between the said and the seen but between the unsaid and the unseen. The outcome of such an approach is twofold: the process is both mechanical and organic, hermeneutic and poetical, which implies a constant concern for the ambivalence of signs. In that sense, the workings, or illogical ‘logic’, of reverse ekphrasis concur with a cinema of signs that opens up a discursive space on the transformative process from words into moving images and on its conditions of production.
16
Skotnicki, Michal. "Popcorn Politics – Selected Philip K. Dick Stories in Contemporary Film Adaptations." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-112981.
Full textAbstract:
This essay is a comparative anlysis of ”Paycheck”, ”The Minority Report” and ”Adjustment Team” by Philip K. Dick and their film adaptations, Paycheck, Minority Report and The Adjustment Bureau. I am primarily interested in the political message of the original stories and how it is affected in the process of transmediation into film. The political message is clearly reflected in the way the protagonists’ free will relates to the bigger system of power. This relationship can either problematize the protagonist’s struggle, forcing him to sacrifice something, or simplify the political dimension by letting him overcome every single obstacle. The extent of the political message is enhanced by its allegorical meaning, especially when related to the contemporary reality. Therefore, I will investigate how the texts and films can be read allegorically and what impact the process of adaptation has on the allegories. I will use Fredric Jameson’s approach to allegory that treats it as a method of interpretation and a tool of mediation and understanding the diversity of human experience. I argue that the allegorical element functions rather independently of the literal political message. When some allegorical interpretations are lost, new ones, connected to the sociocultural context of the adaptation are created. All three adaptations reduce the scope of the political message found in the original texts, opting for less reflective entertainment or even action cinema. Nevertheless, on the allegorical level, they offer new interpretations that echo their updated sociocultural conditions. Keywords: Philip K. Dick; Political Message; Allegory; Adaptation
17
Ward, Jason Mark. "Other stories : the forgotten film adaptations of D.H. Lawrence's short stories." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2014. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14213/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis focuses on the critically neglected short film adaptations of Lawrence’s short stories. Building on recent advances in adaptation studies, it looks beyond ideas of fidelity to emphasise how each film adaptation functions as a creative response to a written text (or texts), foregrounding the significance of the fluid text, transtextuality, genre and the role of the reader. The films analysed in the thesis represent a body of work ranging from the very first Lawrence adaptation to the most recent digital version. The three case-study chapters draw attention to the fluidity of textual and visual sources, the significance of generic conventions and space in adaptation, the generic potentialities latent within Lawrence’s short stories, and the genetic nature of adaptation and genre (which combines replication with variation). By considering Lawrence’s short stories through the lens of these rare short films, the thesis provides a fresh, forward-looking approach to Lawrence studies which engages with current adaptation theory in order to reflect on the evolving critical reception of the author’s work.
18
Munro, Robert. "Screening Scotland's stories : film adaptations in twenty-first-century Scottish cinema." Thesis, Queen Margaret University, 2017. https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/8967.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis surveys book to film adaptations in Scottish cinema in the period 2000-2015. It is the first examination of this practice in a Scottish context which also analyses the operations of Creative Scotland, the public arts body responsible for funding and promoting screen production in Scotland. This thesis asks two central questions: what are the processes by which film adaptations are produced in Scottish cinema? And: do contemporary film adaptations in Scottish cinema engage materially and thematically with ‘the nation’? I do this to test whether or not film adaptation is particularly well suited to speak to a national cultural imaginary. I map out a corpus of film texts produced in the first fifteen years of the twenty-first century, and analyse a selection of those texts in the second half of the thesis. I consider the extent to which industrial and thematic discourses of ‘Scottishness’ are engaged with through and by these films. The understanding of these films as ‘Scottish’, and what that means for both their production and reception, nationally and globally, will be discussed. I argue that the importance of national branding in the production of film remains a crucial component of the global film industry, into which Scottish cinema aims for viability. I categorise my four case studies within the categories of arthouse and popular cinema, in order to better understand the ways in which these films are marketed to, and received by, local and global audiences. Furthermore, this thesis uses these film adaptations to consider the discourses prevalent in Scottish culture in the twenty-first century, by examining those pre-existing texts which are selected for cinematic adaptation. How does the success of prior adaptations shape the range of future texts, and therefore what is deemed viable in Scottish cinema? What recurring representative tendencies are to be found in those film adaptations? How do they relate to the socio-political discourses of their era? This thesis attempts to answers those questions, and in doing so examines how particular discourses are mobilised throughout industrial processes of production, distribution and exhibition, and are readable within the film texts themselves.
19
Fogerty, Hillary Jean. "Sexed bodies and gendered acts : motherhood in film adaptations of Shakespeare /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9406.
Full text
20
Lunning, Lydia. "Dramatic Relocation : The Time and Place for Shakespeare on Film." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1411139072.
Full text
21
Korbon, Nastia. "L' adaptation du Nouveau Testament : cinéma, télévision, apostolat par le film 1897-2004." Paris 1, 2005. http://www.theses.fr/2005PA010583.
Full textAbstract:
S'appuyant sur l'étude détaillée de plus de 60 films, ma recherche analyse l'adaptation du Nouveau Testament depuis les toutes premières Passions (1897) jusqu'à l'époque contemporaine afin d'identifier les diverses techniques narratives utilisées et les différents types de monstrations christiques proposées. Après avoir développé l'époque muette, elle aborde, ensuite, une sélection des nombreuses reconstitutions historiques proposées par le cinéma - récits extensifs et segments de la Vie du Christ - puis s'intéresse à d'autres exemples plus singuliers d'adaptations: œuvres atypiques (comédies musicales, reconstitutions théâtrales, parodies) et adaptations cinématographiques d'ouvrages littéraires s'inspirant des Evangiles (romans et essais). Puis, mon étude considère divers exemples d'adaptations du Nouveau Testament à la télévision centrés soit sur la Vie de Jésus, soit sur sa Passion ou son Enfance. En dernier lieu, ma thèse évoque l'aspect le plus méconnu des adaptations des Evangiles à travers le prolifique Apostolat par le film religieux des années 50 à 1999.
22
Kaderabek, Sarah. "Beyond fidelity : the works of Gogol', Dostoevskii and Chekhov in Soviet and Russian film." Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=36962.
Full textAbstract:
The transfer of an artistic work from the literary medium to the filmic medium presents technical, personal, social and political factors for consideration which are capable of revealing important information about the times in which both the literary work and the film work were created. In a Russian context, where both literature and film have played roles of central cultural importance, the study of this interaction can be particularly fruitful. The first chapter of this dissertation considers the theoretical aspects of adaptation, namely fidelity to the original work and questions of metaphor and narrative structure. After examining these issues in a general context, Chapter 1 then views them in the light of specific stages of Russian cinematic history. The remaining chapters of this dissertation consider selected post-revolutionary Soviet and Russian filmic adaptations of the works of Nikolai Gogol', Fedor Dostoevskii and Anton Chekhov in chronological order. Analysis of both text and film is undertaken in order to demonstrate the complexity of literary and extra-literary factors involved in adaptation. The works of Gogol' have provided film makers with the challenge of finding "adequate" filmic equivalents to this writer's narrative devices, particularly his use of skaz [oral folk narration]. Dostoevskii's works have proven to be a stumbling block for film makers, both in terms of their ideological acceptability, and their exploration of complex psychological and religious issues. The adaptations of Chekhov's works have provided cinema with diverse subject matter that reflects the various stages and developments of Russian cinematic history, from pure fabula borrowing to an emphasis on mood and atmosphere. The interdisciplinary approach of this dissertation strives to show both the on-going relevancy of nineteenth-century Russian literature to modern culture, and the cinema's ability to present vastly differing interpretive possibilities of the literary cano
23
Mattsson, Lisa. "Women and Film Adaptations : Feminism in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk och litteratur, SOL, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-10816.
Full textAbstract:
This paper will focus on feminism over time as well as film adaptations. By comparing the play The Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare, with the movie from 1967 with the same name and also the movie 10 Things I Hate about You from 1999, the aim is to see if, and how, the specific wave of feminism, and the woman, is portrayed in the different film adaptations. The different waves of feminism and the movie of that wave are presented together, one by one. Lastly, an analysis of the movies follows.
24
Schmoll, Linda Brigitte. "Goethe on film, television adaptations of Goetz von Berlichingen, Egmont and Stella." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0005/NQ30642.pdf.
Full text
25
Schiltz, Françoise Innes. "The future re-visited : 1950s American film adaptations of Jules Verne novels." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.439548.
Full text
26
Martino, Mariarita. "An analysis of scopophilia in an intersemiotic context : four Italian film adaptations." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2011. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/49036/.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis contributes to the current debate in the fields of adaptation studies and intersemiotic translation. Recent critical stances invite the re-evaluation of the traditional hierarchy which subordinates the target text to its original, and promote a description-oriented textual analysis of a key issue which is common to the texts involved in the adaptation process. By considering the relationship between literature and cinema, the present thesis explores scopophilia, or the love for looking at sexually stimulating scenes, as a key issue in the textual analysis of intersemiotic translation in four significant novels adapted to Italian cinema. Specifically, to put them in the order of the chapters, the thesis analyses scopophilia in Alberto Moravia’s L’uomo che guarda (1985) and the Italian translation of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s novel La chiave (1956), two literary works adapted to cinema by the Italian director of erotic cinema Tinto Brass (in 1994 and 1983 respectively), and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968) and Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (c. 1350-53), adapted for the screen by Pasolini himself (in 1968 and 1971 respectively). The case studies tackle issues related to adaptation of novels to films, but also issues concerned with the erotic, control and discovery, as well as other psychoanalytic notions which are related to scopophilia (e.g. sexual fetishism, Oedipus complex).
27
Gerzic, Marina. "The intersection of Shakespeare and popular culture : an intertextual examination of some millennial Shakespearean film adaptations (1999-2001), with special reference to music." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0146.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation analyses millennial film adaptations of five of Shakespeare's plays with a specific focus on a selection of different kinds of film. These are William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999: Dir. Michael Hoffman), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999: Dir. Gil Junger), Hamlet (2000: Dir. Michael Almereyda), Titus (1999: Dir. Julie Taymor), and Scotland, PA (2001: Dir. Billy Morrissette). The films covered include both box office and independent, textually close to Shakespeare's words or not, all totally different from each other. This thesis contextualises these film adaptations within the realm of film studies, music theory, Shakespeare performance theory, critical theory and popular culture. Rather than analysing each Shakespearean film adaptation purely on an aesthetic level, my dissertation will identify and analyse each director's
28
Rafferty, Barclay. "Adaptations of Othello : (in)adaptability and transmedial representations of race." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/12075.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines adaptations of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (c. 1601–4) across media, comparing cinematic, televisual, musical, visual art, and online adaptations, among others, in an endeavour to determine its adaptability in various periods and cultural and societal contexts, with a focus on the issue of race. Shakespeare’s seeming endorsement of a racial stereotype has proved to be challenging in adaptations, which have not always been successful in either reproducing or interrogating the issue, despite the fact that the play has continuously been engaged with across media, periods, and cultures. Resultantly, the thesis considers the ways in which the race issues present in Othello have been exploited, adapted ‘faithfully’, ignored, and negotiated in different contexts. Sustained consideration of representations of the race issues of the play from a Western perspective has not been undertaken previously and this thesis analyses the use of Othello as a vehicle for commenting on and reflecting contemporary current events through the lenses of adaptation theory and the singular history that adaptations of Shakespeare’s work have. Initially, the thesis explores national readings of screen adaptations (from the United States, Great Britain, and outside the Anglo-American gaze), before grouping adaptations by media (such as music and online videos, as well as allusions in other media), deducing why specific adaptive trends have endured in Othellos, examining the relationship between the adaptability of the play and the media in which it is placed. A pertinent question addressed is: what is Othello’s place in adaptations of Shakespeare’s work – and how adaptable is it when both black and white performers and adapters perpetuate racial stereotypes? One conclusion drawn is that – despite its prevalence across media – Othello is inadaptable when its race issues are linked – through various methods – to the contexts in which it is placed, changing them in the process.
29
Tan, Chee Seng. "Text into film : a study of the presentation of character in film adaptations of two works of English literature." Thesis, University of Macau, 2002. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b1636605.
Full text
30
Doan, Joy M. "THE INNOCENT DIVERSION ON SCREEN: THE NARRATIVE FUNCTION OF FILM MUSIC IN ADAPTATIONS BASED ON THE WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1270568560.
Full text
31
Ortega, Dolors. "Deterritorialising patriarchal binary oppositions: Deleuze & Guattari, Virginia Woolf, Masculinities and Film Adaptations." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/132672.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aims to problematise the hegemonic set of relations that has been aligned to gender and sex within the framework of binary thought when reading Woolf’s narrative of gender. Woolf’s elusive and intense style, the plasticity and ambivalence of her language and her complex, polyhedric characters make of Virginia Woolf’s literature a literature of her own; a radical literature that is able to draw new undefined landscapes, unsettled territories, dislocating and challenging routes mapped out through her experimental method, her crossing of generic boundaries, and her fluid and limitless characterisations.
This project focuses on Woolf’s male characters as a reaction to the constraints that gender studies have generally imposed upon her writings. Two main objections have been considered; on the one hand, much of the critical effort related to gender and Woolf’s writing has focused on femininity, by ignoring her radical male characters. On the other hand, despite vast female-centred studies and the small amount of studies focused on masculinities there is a number of scholars who have dealt with rigid and fluid male characters (studies that assimilate Woolf’s work on masculinities to the discourse of patriarchy, war, imperialism and fascism; psychoanalytic perspectives on gender; studies that focus on homosexuality; and studies that focus on androgyny). However, most of these approaches to masculinities in Woolf have inscribed gender/sex in rigid binary taxonomies.
My reading of Deleuze’s and Guattari’s collaborative body of work (their fluid conception of individuation and their concept of difference-in-itself) together with my reading of Men’s studies (Connell, Kimmel, Segal) and Difference Feminism (Irigaray, Jardine, Braidotti, Grosz, Olkowski, Colebrook) constitute the theoretical framework for this thesis in order to explore Woolf’s masculinities beyond gender/sex binary oppositions.
This thesis has aimed to contribute to the field of Woolf Studies with an analysis of both Woolf’s criticism of rigid discourses of masculinity and by proving Woolf’s radical concept of gender and her proposal of alternative gender behaviours. My two case studies have been Septimus Warren Smith and Orlando. I have proved these two novelistic characters to be polymorphous and multilayered figurations of gender and paradigmatic examples of the Deleuzo-Guattarian process of becoming-woman (Septimus as the empty BwO and Orlando as the full BwO).
Finally, this thesis evaluates the impact that Woolf’s visionary narrative of gender has had on more contemporary narratives. In order to analyse a more contemporary response to Woolf’s narrative I chose to work with two cinematic texts. This project focuses on Marleen Gorris’s Mrs Dalloway (1997) and Sally Potter’s Orlando (1992) as new texts that extend, reread, implement and reappropriate Woolf’s work to respond to different social demands in relation to gender. It analyses the extent to which the gender narrative of these two cinematic texts fail or succeed in projecting radical figurations of masculinities beyond man/ woman, male/female, heterosexual/homosexual taxonomies.
This thesis approaches literature conceptually, from a philosophical perspective. An interdisciplinary methodology has been used. The whole nature of the project is interdisciplinary in its focus on both different media, novels and film adaptations, and in the crossing of literature, film studies, philosophy, and cultural studies. The main focus throughout is Virginia Woolf’s novelistic narrative of gender and two late twentieth century approaches to Woolf’s gender narrative carried out by two film adaptations of Woolf. The analysis of Gorris’s and Potter’s adaptations has been purely narratological. Formalist devices of the cinematic media have been used in narrative terms. That is to say, I have analysed the transformation, adaptation, amplification, or re-evaluation that these two more contemporary cinematic narratives have carried out from Woolf’s complex narrative of gender at two specific contexts with given social demands.Aquesta tesi analitza la narrativa de gènere que Virginia Woolf articula a partir de les seves novel•les i la compara amb la narrativa de gènere de dues adaptacions cinematogràfiques més contemporànies (Potter, 1992; Gorris, 1997), centrant-se en l’anàlisi dels personatges masculins. Aquest projecte explora la crítica que Woolf adreça a la representativitat rígida de la masculinitat, així com la seva proposta de construccions de gènere alternatives. Per tal d’atendre aquestes alternatives, la tesi defineix un marc teòric que combina la filosofia sobre el procés d’individuació de Gilles Deleuze i Félix Guattari, el feminisme de la diferència (Grosz, Olkowski, Colebrook) i la teoria i crítica de les masculinitats (Connell, Kimmel, Segal). La tesi postula la radicalitat de la visió de gènere de Woolf, en tant que demostra el seu trencament amb el pensament binari. Septimus Warren Smith i Orlando, els dos estudis de cas, representen exemples paradigmàtics d’una concepció de gènere polimòrfica, fluida, múltiple, i polisexual. És així com la tesi avalua l’impacte de la visionària narrativa de gènere de Woolf sobre narratives més contemporànies. Les adaptacions cinematogràfiques Mrs Dalloway (Gorris, 1997) i Orlando (Potter, 1992) són analitzades com a textos que extenen, rellegeixen, implementen i reapropien els textos de Virginia Woolf per tal de respondre a les demandes socials específiques del seu temps.
32
Basea, Erato. "Literature and the Greek auteur : film adaptations in the Greek cinema d' auteur." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cab79d67-f602-43f4-96b4-4f017b2b8efa.
Full textAbstract:
The focus of this thesis is to trace the dialogue between the Greek cinéma d' auteur and Greek literature focusing on film adaptations of Greek literature from 1964 to 2001. It is argued that film adaptations are a sensitive prism through which to examine the auteurs’ cultural politics regarding their work and, through that, understand the economy of the auteurist cultural production itself. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One presents the history of the creation of the Greek cinéma d' auteur and traces its developments in relation to the concepts of national and high art. The principle argument is that Greek literature, endowed with notions of high art and national identity, played a key role in the gradual emergence, formation and consolidation of auteurism as a cinema that enunciates national identity and articulates high art values. The next four chapters examine four film adaptations each made by an acclaimed auteur. The chapters endeavour to investigate the identity politics of each director in relation to the categories of high and national art that defined the Greek cinéma d' auteur. Moreover, the chapters aim to study the politics involved in the validation or renegotiation of auteurism itself. The major contribution of the thesis is the exploration of film adaptations of Greek literature in the Greek cinéma d' auteur which has not been systematically discussed so far. Furthermore, the investigation of the two separate components that make up the subject of the thesis, namely cinema and literature, both from a theoretical perspective and within the framework of film studies, aligns the thesis with recent discussions in Modern Greek Studies and theoretical debates about authorship in films, film adaptations as well as peripheral cinemas.
33
Sanchez-Stockhammer, Christina. "How comics communicate on the screen: Telecinematic discourse in comic-to-film adaptations." Bloomsbury, 2020. https://monarch.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A74551.
Full textAbstract:
This paper explores the relation between the popular “Tintin” comics by the Belgian artist Hergé and Steven Spielberg’s successful film adaptation “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011) from a linguistic perspective. It explores how language use in the scriptovisual medium of the comic (which combines still images and printed text) is rendered in the audiovisual medium of film (which combines moving images and spoken language). After discussing general linguistic similarities between comics and films and the use of language in each of the two media, the paper compares the representation of voice, accent, thoughts, talking animals, sounds and written language in Spielberg’s screen adaptation to the original printed comic books. It analyses to what extent the language from comic books can be directly transferred to the filmic medium and investigates possible causes underlying any modifications in the above-mentioned domains.
34
Watkins, Edward Matthew. "The truth in selling science, and the drama of adapting it for television." Thesis, Montana State University, 2008. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2008/watkins/WatkinsE1208.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The path from science text to science television show is a rocky one. The fragmentation of the television market place with the growth of cable television has pushed science documentaries into a headlong pursuit for higher viewer ratings in a medium dominated by works of fiction. In response to this, science documentary has steadily been pushed to alter the techniques it uses, and adapt its content to become more dramatic. Varying market pressures have led to the rise of two dominant methods of dramatization; narrative imposition and visual spectacle (typically CGI). However, in addition to making science shows more dramatic these two techniques have acted to create a hybridized format, blending subjective speculation with traditional expositional documentary techniques. The result of such hybridization has been to blur the lines between fact and fiction and to allow for the creation of dubious subjunctive documentaries, and almost entirely fictive narrative documentaries. This has acted to uphold the cultural practice of misinterpreting science in order to support fantasy and fiction, and has led to a rise in pseudoscience, which could be potentially very damaging to society. The growth in the public misinterpretation of science could leave our societies woefully unprepared to make informed decisions about the future. To avoid this, I suggest that we find ways to adapt science for television that are more accurate in showing the true nature of science. Instead of bending science to conform to preconceived, linear dramatic narratives, I suggest we look at alternative narratives such as those seen in discursive \'essay\' films. And, instead of stretching spectacle and visualization so far as to create fantastical dramatic fictional worlds, I believe we should focus on creating shows that use metaphor and analogy to help us visualize the real, hidden nature of science. By utilizing scientists as guides and peers rather than as heroes and elitists, by choosing discourse over teleology, and by incorporating visually rich metaphors and analogies into science shows, we can render the strange and unfamiliar understandable and engaging.
35
Du, Plooy Alta. "Die ongelooflike avonture van Afrikaanse filmaanpassings: filmic adaptations of Afrikaans literature with specific focus on novels, youth literature and stage plays." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13349.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references.South African cinemas, and Afrikaans cinemas in particular, have mostly been studied for its political, representational and socio-political value and its often-problematic furnishing in these categories. This dissertation explores different lenses through which Afrikaans cinemas can be studied. It models itself on Alexie Tcheuyap’s framework in Postnationalist African Cinemas (2011) which directly questions the notion that African cinemas have to be revolutionary, nationalistic, subversive and/or post-colonialist. These demands were clearly set out by FEPACI in the 1960s and many scholars never revised their strategies of scholarship or kept up with the vast political, social and cultural shifts of most of the continent’s cinemas and audiences. Tcheuyap argues for a new way of studying these cinemas that allows for emphases on genre, myth construction, sexuality, dance and the refraction of some cultural practices in the imagination of filmmakers, audiences and the screen (2011). Because this study models itself on new frameworks of investigating African cinemas, it contextualises Afrikaans cinemas within African cinemas. Afrikaans as a language should own its connections of a history of oppression and terrorisation of around 90% of South Africans for a very long time before, during and even after apartheid. It is however imperative that the language’s function, representation and literary and artistic contribution to South African culture is revised and included in studies of African cinemas. The unabashed subversiveness of Afrikaans filmmakers like Jans Rautenbach and Manie van Rensburg during the height of apartheid is often overlooked. Even though scholarship of Afrikaans cinemas is relatively limited, the domain of the discipline is rather large with a history that spans across 83 years. The parameters for this study beacon off one sector namely that of filmic adaptations of Afrikaans literature. Specific focus will be given to adaptations of novels, youth literature and stage plays. Adaptation theory has, like the study of African cinemas, only very recently moved away from the popular essentialist, page- to -screen view of what filmic adaptions should be or do. Kamilla Elliott teases out a complex history and development of scholarship and tendencies in adaptation studies in her book, Rethinking the Novel/Film debate (2003). I unpack Elliott’s tracing of interart wars and interart analogies and concepts of adaptation in chapter two. This proposed framework for adaptation studies is used to map some of the primary texts ’ film aesthetics and strategies of thematic moulding in Roepman (2011) in chapter two. Chapter three explores the special interaction between adaptation and particular narrative component and how the director uses a mixed film aesthetic to move between a character’s interiority and exterior environment in Die Ongelooflike Avonture van Hanna Hoekom (2010) . This chapter also analyses how Afrikaans films have posed challenges to the nuclear family – both Skilpoppe (2004) and Hanna Hoekom feature overt explorations of this theme. A contemporary stage play has never been adapted for Afrikaans film. Chapter four regards two adaptations from stage plays – Moedertjie (1931) and Siener in die Suburbs (1975) to observe how space and genre, with specific reference to melodrama, has entered into and functions in these texts.
36
Green, Bryony Rose Humphries. "A book history study of Michael Radford's filmic production William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1710/.
Full text
37
Trautmann, Ludovic. "Du roman au film : transécriture et récurrences problématiques dans la série James Bond." Thesis, Université Laval, 2010. http://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2010/27235/27235.pdf.
Full text
38
Angerman, Elizabeth Ellen Julia. "“The Idea of Eternal Return”: Palimpsests and National Narratives in Czechoslovak New Wave Literary Adaptations." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275067749.
Full text
39
Camp, Nathan. "Not So Elementary: An Examination of Trends in a Century of Sherlock Holmes Adaptations." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1157536/.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines changes over time in 40 different Sherlock Holmes films and 39 television series and movies spanning from 1900 to 2017. Quantitative observations were mixed with a qualitative examination. Perceptions of law enforcement became more positive over time, the types of crime did not vary, and representation of race and gender improved over time with incrementally positive changes in the representation of queer, mentally ill, and physically handicapped individuals. The exact nature of these trends is discussed. Additionally, the trends of different decades are explored and compared. Sherlock Holmes is mostly used as a vehicle for storytelling rather than for the salacious crimes that he solves, making the identification of perceptions of crime in different decades difficult. The reasons for why different Sherlock Holmes projects were created in different eras and for different purposes are discussed.
40
Rangwala, Shama. "Elizabeth Bowen and cinema." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=116104.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis focuses on the significance of the cinematic medium for Elizabeth Bowen's novels, from the level of prose and formal representations to broader aspects of narrative and character. The chapters on To the North (1932) and The House in Paris (1935) examine complementary issues of motion and stillness and the consequent impact on subjective experiences of time, space, knowledge, and identity. The final chapter expands the issue of genre revision in The Heat of the Day (1949) to the greater problem of precedent and the reconstruction of identity through storytelling; the novel not only uses formal cinematic techniques by evoking the tone of film noir, but also reconfigures narrative and character tropes of the genre. Thus the advent of cinema not only opened up formal possibilities in the language of fiction but also expanded the types of worlds and effects an author could depict.
41
Davis, Richard B. "Exploring the Factory: Analyzing the Film Adaptations of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2009. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/72.
Full textAbstract:
Film adaptations are becoming more popular and past critics and scholars have discussed films based on dramas and novels. However, few have explored the children’s literature genre. In discussing such a topic, it takes more than just debating whether the novel or book is better. A discussion on what elements have been maintained, removed, or added in such an adaptation has to be made along with its success or failure. With this in mind, Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and its two film adaptations will be explored along with an analysis of film adaptation theory to show that the first version of the novel succeeds and the second one fails.
42
Stephenson, Amanda. "The constructions of authorship and audience in the production and consumption of children's film adaptations." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2016. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/393687/.
Full textAbstract:
In the public consumption of film adaptations of popular children’s literature, which is, particularly in relation to the popular press, influenced by the marketing communications of the filmmaking team, the discursive negotiation of author and audience constructs is pivotal in the endeavor to side-step or manage the seemingly unavoidable discourses of fidelity. In this, child audiences are imagined and constructed in a variety of ways; however, these constructions generally have very little to do with actual children and much more to do with how the filmmakers wish/need to manage and negotiate the significance of both book and film authors. This area is largely unexplored in adaptation studies, for whilst the topic of fidelity proliferates the discipline, its function as a marketing tool - as well as its links to how author(s) and audience(s) are imagined and constructed - needs further investigation. What is clear in the following case studies is that the representations of audience(s) vary depending on the culturally understood personas of the author(s) at hand, therefore as the representation of the various book and film authors shift from case study to case study, so does the representation of the audience. In Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling is deemed to be the primary authorial presence, and the audience are imagined as a cohesive, loyal group of avid readers. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton and Roald Dahl are equally significant (despite the lack of Dahl’s physical presence) because they are both deemed to be outsiders, much like the audience members are all (implicitly and paradoxically) also deemed to be. In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Andrew Adamson is unable to compete with the emotional attachment many adult journalists and critics have to the book, and the result of this is that the discursive presence of the child audience is largely absent. All of these films were within a few years of each other, yet the ‘child,’ childhood more generally, and the intended audience are all constructed in very di erent ways demonstrating that what is important to those promoting (and often those consuming) a film is a solid author construct, and any discussions of children or child audiences only serves to validate these author figures.
43
Caddy, Scott. "(Mis)appropriating (con)text Jane Austen's Mansfield Park in contemporary literary criticism and film /." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1245361134.
Full text
44
Dunn, John T. "Scoring for the Specter: Dualities in the Music of the Ghost Scene in Four Film Adaptations of Hamlet." Thesis, view full-text document, 2002. http://www.library.unt.edu/theses/open/20022/dunn%5Fjohn%5Ft/index.htm.
Full text
45
Cant, Whitney. ""I am excessively diverted" : recent adaptations of Pride and Prejudice on television, film, and digital media." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/46382.
Full textAbstract:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is the proverbial choice for adaptation, especially her most famous novel Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813. Remarkably, this two hundred-year-old novel written by a lady who never married, always lived at home, and died at the age of forty-one, is one of the most timeless stories in English literature. Adapters are drawn to the story of Elizabeth and Darcy, both to pay reverence to the original, and to impart their own vision of the classic tale of first impressions. In the past two decades, the most creative, popular, and financially successful adaptations have emerged: the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice directed by Simon Langton, the 2005 feature film Pride & Prejudice directed by Joe Wright, and the 2012 transmedia storytelling experience The Lizzie Bennet Diaries directed by Bernie Su. This thesis utilizes the three components of Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation (2006) to discuss these works at length. After a preliminary chapter outlining the major adaptations theories, in Chapter Two I examine the 1995 BBC miniseries as a formal entity or product; in Chapter Three I discuss the 2005 film as a process of creation; and in Chapter Four I analyze the 2012 transmedia experience as a process of reception. This thesis argues that each of these adaptations does something remarkably different to set itself apart from the novel and the adaptations before it. I claim that adaptations of Pride and Prejudice from the 1990s onward respond back to the most recent adaptation just as much as they do the original novel, affirming the increasing popularity of Pride and Prejudice as an adaptive source text.
46
Kawa, Abraham. "Everything at once : postmodern concepts of #reality' in comic book narrative and its adaptations on film." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.251679.
Full text
47
Westin, Karin. "The Role of Film Adaptations in the English Language Classroom : Teaching Print Literature with Multimodal Aids." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-56238.
Full textAbstract:
Literary appreciation is the ability to understand patterns of literature and literary devices, for example symbols and characterization in a text, as well as appreciate the text as a form of art. Without literary appreciation, students will most likely struggle to their reading comprehension and literary repertories, which will make it hard to become competent readers of literature. This essay argues that film adaptations can be used as a multimodal aid in the English Language Classroom in order to help students develop their literary appreciation. The essay claims that students should be able to interpret a professional evocation of the story by employing their multiliteracies. By comparing how the literary devices are used in the print literature and in a film adaptation, such as The Great Gatsby, students can transfer their multiliteracies from the film adaptation when they are reading the story in the print literature. By studying and using a professional interpretation of the print literature through a different medium that students are more proficient in deciphering, they can use it in their own personal evocation of the story when they are reading the print literature.
48
Gruenwald, Jacqueline C. "Revising gender roles : the de-evolution of the heroine in the film adaptations of Edna Ferber /." Available to subscribers only, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1594479921&sid=22&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
Full text
49
Artt, S. J. "The Master and Mrs Wharton : film adaptations of the work of Edith Wharton and Henry James." Thesis, Queen Margaret University, 2005. https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/7329.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is an examination of six films adapted between 1993 and 2000 from novels by Henry James and Edith Wharton: James's The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, The Portrait of a Lady and Wharton's The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth and The Buccaneers. All six films have been claimed as part of the costume drama/literary adaptation/heritage genre. The analysis of this cycle of adaptations focuses on the visual expression of four key themes: wealth, desire, decorum and social mobility. Dress and art are deployed within the visual fabric of these adaptations as symbolic objects that make up what Wharton termed the "hieroglyphic world" of society. In this cycle of films, the use of art and dress constitutes a new way of viewing costume and art as elements of the adaptation process. Barthes's aspect of the third meaning, "the passage from language to significance" is conveyed through dress and art as sites of visual meaning, a concept that is also deployed by James and Wharton in their fiction. The mise-en-scene of these six adaptations draws inspiration from a variety of artistic influences, ranging from the paintings of John Singer Sargent and James Tissot to the influence of early cinema and photography. Clothing plays an intrinsic role in both the novels and the film adaptations, in terms of displaying consumption, social class and character, and it also makes up the iconic images created by stars who take on key roles, such as Helen Bonham Carter's portrayal of Kate Croy as a "heritage noir" (cf. Church Gibson, 2000) femme fatale in the film of The Wings of the Dove. James and Wharton's narratives represent an expression of the 'transcultural aesthetic' making their fiction particularly apt for cinematic adaptation in an era of increased global mobility. This concept of the transcultural aesthetic is vital in attempting to widen the debate on 'heritage' cinema. While these films and novels share textual themes rooted in settings ranging from the late 1870s through to the early 1900s, the narratives are adapted in ways that make James and Wharton relevant to contemporary cinema audiences, while also reminding us of the timelessness of James and Wharton's narratives.
50
Hartvigsen, Kathryn. "Nineteenth-Century Theatrical Adaptations of Nineteenth-Century Literature." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2008. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd2510.pdf.
Full text