Oct 30, 2024
Literary Approach–Novels into Films
Book
Bluestone, George. Novels into Films: a Study of Adaptations, 1957
Cinematic adaptations should be evaluated, not as mere retelling of the novels, but rather as autonomous works on their own terms.
Thus evaluating cinematic adapts in terms of fidelity to or accuracy of source material is not useful.
Emphasis should be on the encounters of films with novels in narrative structure, narration
How cinematic adaptations function more as commentaries, readings, and transformations of the original text.
Similarities:
Both film and lit share a common nature as discourse (ecriture)
Both are textual and intertextual
Both can foreground their constructed nature
Both can elicit the active collaboration of their readers/spectators
The difference between verbal and visual expression is so great that the “faithfulness” becomes a very relative notion.
Yet the urge to comparison is nearly impossible to refuse.
Film has remarkable capacity to incorporate a variety of aesthetic and discursive influences, from comic strips to classic novels
Film relies on classic novels of the middle class and pulp novels
They supply plots, themes, characters.
They provide audiences (readers of middle class) respectability as well as familiarity and pleasure.
Hitchcock realized the potential distinctiveness of film as a medium. He scorned the idea that literature should be “faithfully” adapted ro the big screen, though most f his films were based on novels or plays.
Also: Impact of film on Literature
