Review of \u3cem\u3eJane Austen on Film and Television: A Critical Study of the Adaptations\u3c/em\u3e (original) (raw)
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“Jane Austen’s Emma Seen through the Cinematic Lens”. East-West Cultural Passage. 9 (2010): 115-135.
ABSTRACT Given the fact that more than twenty Austen-related cinematic adaptations have been released over the past fifteen years alone, the analysis of this cultural phenomenon emerges as a necessity for gaining a complex understanding of Austen’s work and the way we perceive it today. Two centuries of interpretive history necessarily come to bear on any reading, be it critical or filmic, of Austen’s novel Emma. Critical material relating to Emma’s being a difficult read due to its hermeneutic versatility and ambiguity has been insisted upon, as opposed to criticism with political and other than aesthetic agendas. As five cinematic adaptations of Emma are analysed in terms of their relationship to the novel they are based on, to literary criticism and interpretation, and to each other, adaptation emerges as steering increasingly away from mere intersemiotic ‘translation’ towards more and more creative interpretation, involving, at times, the displacement of the literary work from its original socio-historical and cultural context. This development is shown to have a crucial relevance to contemporary culture. KEYWORDS: Austen’s interpretive history, Emma’s hermeneutic difficulty, cinematic adaptation, fidelity, intertextuality, ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, recent trends in filmic adaptation.
Television Adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma, 1972–2009
Lund Journal of English Studies
The aim of this paper was to analyse how three different television adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma (1815) avail themselves of the medium of television to narrate the story. The productions analysed are John Glenister’s BBC series from 1972, dramatised by Denis Constanduros; Diarmuid Lawrence’s ITV film from 1996, dramatised by Andrew Davies; and Jim O’Hanlon’s BBC series from 2009, dramatised by Sandy Welch. A close reading and formal analysis of the three television productions, against a close reading of the novel and theoretical perspectives on narration and adaptation by Seymour Chatman, Linda Hutcheon and Linda Costanzo Cahir, showed differences related to the different formats of TV series and TV film as well as to the differences in ideals and conventions related to television drama between 1972 and 2009.
Austenland and Narrative Tensions in Austen’s Biopics
Springer eBooks, 2018
Austenland and narrative tensions in Austen's biopics This essay explores how the popular film Austenland (2013) comically exposes some of the narrative conventions and tensions, which are apparent in two earlier Austen biopics: Becoming Jane (2007) and Miss Austen Regrets (2008). Through an investigation of these texts, it will be seen that the wish to celebrate Austen's historical otherness and difference, is often held in an uneasy balance with a desire to investigate the contemporary relevance of her life and work for modern readers. I will suggest that all these texts offer readings of Austen shaped by a modern aspirational narrative of romantic fulfilment. In addition their creation of an idea of 'Englishness' is informed by not only twenty-first century contexts, but also differing national expectations of Austen's world. Moreover, the essay will explore how these filmic readings are predicated on unreliable reconstructions of Austen's life, sometimes supplemented by details from Austen's novels, as well as playful enactments of historical 'facts' and selfreferential quotation of other biopics and classic adaptations. These intertextual references are, as we will see, central also to the narrative of Austenland, and this investigation shows how the film ironically critiques earlier filmic versions of the life and works of Jane Austen, as it unremittingly draws attention to the artifice of Austenland itself. I Definitions It seems to be generally agreed that the biopics of canonical literary figures, such as Austen, frequently share many of the characteristics displayed in the classic literary adaptations of their work. In her article 'Becoming Jane and the Adaptation Genre', Deborah Cartmell helpfully summarises the characteristics of the classic literary adaptation. From Leitch's work she notes that they include 'a period setting, "period" music, an obsession with authors, books and words, and a preponderance of intertitles, all calling attention to the film's adaptation credentials' (Cartmell, 2012, pp. 25-6). To this list, as Cartmell indicates, we might add from Geraghty's work, moments where 'the film's mise-en-scene visually recalls other much loved films...these meta-adaptive moments foster nostalgia' (Cartmell, 2012, p. 26). Further features suggested by Cartmell herself include 'an emphasis on the author, the inclusion of art, painting or sculpture within the frame or recreated in the mise en scene' (Cartmell, 2012, p. 26) as well as:
Jane Austen and William Shakespeare: A Love Affair in Literature, Film and Performance
Palgrave, 2019
This volume explores the multiple connections between the two most canonical authors in English, Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. The collection reflects on the historical, literary, critical and filmic links between the authors and their fates. Considering the implications of the popular cult of Austen and Shakespeare, the essays are interdisciplinary and comparative: ranging from Austen’s and Shakespeare’s biographies to their presence in the modern vampire saga Twilight, passing by Shakespearean echoes in Austen’s novels and the authors’ afterlives on the improv stage, in wartime cinema, modern biopics and crime fiction. The volume concludes with an account of the Exhibition “Will & Jane” at the Folger Shakespeare Library, which literally brought the two authors together in the autumn of 2016. Collectively, the essays mark and celebrate what we have called the long-standing “love affair” between William Shakespeare and Jane Austen—over 200 years and counting. CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction: Jane and Will, the Love Story Marina Cano and Rosa García-Periago Part 1: History, Contexts and Criticism Chapter 2: Jane Austen as ‘Prose Shakespeare’: Early Comparisons Joanne Wilkes Chapter 3: William Shakespeare and Jane Austen: Biographical Challenges Robert Bearman Chapter 4: Shakespeare and Austen Translated Marie Nedregotten Sørbø Chapter 5: Jewels, Bonds and the Body: Material Culture in Shakespeare and Austen Barbara Benedict Part 2: Intertextual Connections Chapter 6: Is it ‘a marriage of true minds’? Balanced Reading in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion Lynda Hall Chapter 7: ‘As sure as I have a thought or a soul’: The Protestant Heroine in Shakespeare and Austen Claire McEachern Chapter 8: Tyrants, Lovers, and Comedy in the Green Worlds of Mansfield Park and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Inger S. B. Brodey Chapter 9: Forbidden Familial Relations: Echoes of Shakespeare’s King Henry VIII and Hamlet in Austen’s Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility Glenda Hudson Part 3: Theatre, Film and Performance Chapter 10: Shylock’s turquoise ring: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park and the Exquisite Acting of Edmund Kean Judith Page Chapter 11: Austen and Shakespeare: Improvised Drama Marina Cano Chapter 12: Shakespeare, Austen and Propaganda in World War II Rosa García-Periago Chapter 13: Screening Will and Jane: Sexuality and the Gendered Author in Shakespeare and Austen Biopics Lisa Starks Part 4: Popular Culture Chapter 14: Austen and Shakespeare, Detectives Lisa Hopkins Chapter 15: In the Pursuit of Love: Twilight, Jane and Will Heta Pyrhönen Chapter 16: Curating Will & Jane Janine Barchas and Kristina Straub Chapter 17: Afterword Mark Thornton Burnett
pulib.sk
Traditional adaptation theory views hold that a film based on a novel must display fidelity to its source. Modern theorists however, emphasize the intertextual nature of an adaptation and that as a product it should be seen as a new text. Adapting Jane Austen's novels to film has fuelled debates on the extent to which adaptation industry has lessened or enriched her novels and to what extent alterations are justified or needed in order to render her novels 'correctly' to screen, if that is possible at all. The complexity of her novels, though, makes it extremely difficult to adapt forcing filmmakers to create new texts. Adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, very much differ from the novel, they emphasize certain elements while disregarding other, sometimes vital ones. Dropping certain novelistic elements however, does not make the adaptations less valuable than the novel, but recreate the original stories. The paper presents some of the changes present in the last two film adaptations of Sense and Sensibility.