Description
Scholz (American studies, University of Konstanz, Germany) analyzes film adaptations of literature as social and cultural events in history using the methods of reception study, as proposed by Barbara Klinger and Janet Staiger, in order to shed light on the relationship between narrative, intertextuality, and ideology. The first part of the book examines the reception of three classic American blockbuster adaptations in Cold War West Germany. The second part of the book applies a post-feminist perspective to Hollywood film adaptations in the 1990s, including the Henry James and Jane Austen film booms. A final chapter looks to the future of adaptation studies as a branch of transnational film history. The book is illustrated with b&w historical photos, film stills, movies posters, and publicity shots. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Scholarly approaches to the relationship between literature and film, ranging from the traditional focus upon fidelity to more recent issues of intertextuality, all contain a significant blind spot: a lack of theoretical and methodological attention to adaptation as an historical and transnational phenomenon. This book argues for a historically informed approach to American popular culture that reconfigures the classically defined adaptation phenomenon as a form of transnational reception. Focusing on several case studies— including the films Sense and Sensibility (1995) and The Portrait of a Lady (1997), and the classics The Third Man (1949) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)—the author demonstrates the ways adapted literary works function as social and cultural events in history and how these become important sites of cultural negotiation and struggle.
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