Literature and Film

Literature and Film is a cornucopia of vibrant essays that chart the history and confluence of literature and film. It explores in detail a wide and international spectrum of novels and adaptations, bringing together the very latest scholarship in the field.

List of Illustrations viii

Notes on Contributors ix

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation 1
Robert Stam

1 Improvements and Reparations at Mansfield Park 53
Tim Watson

2 Keeping the Carcass in Motion: Adaptation and Transmutations of the National in The Last of the Mohicans 71
Jacquelyn Kilpatrick

3 The Discreet Charm of the Leisure Class: Terence Davies’s The House of Mirth 86
Richard Porton

4 In Search of Adaptation: Proust and Film 100
Melissa Anderson

5 The Grapes of Wrath: Thematic Emphasis through Visual Style 111
Vivian C. Sobchack

6 Cape Fear and Trembling: Familial Dread 126
Kirsten Thompson

7 The Carnival of Repression: German Left-wing Politics and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum 148
Alexandra Seibel

8 Serial Time: Bluebeard in Stepford 163
Bliss Cua Lim

9 Boyz N the Hood Chronotopes: Spike Lee, Richard Price, and the Changing Authorship of Clockers 191
Paula J. Massood

10 Defusing the English Patient 208
Patrick Deer

11 Carnivals and Goldfish: History and Crisis in the Butcher Boy 233
Jessica Scarlata

12 Passion or Heartburn? The Uses of Humor in Esquivel’s and Arau’s Like Water for Chocolate 252
Dianna C. Niebylski

13 Beloved: The Adaptation of an American Slave Narrative 272
Mia Mask

14 Oral Traditions, Literature, and Cinema in Africa 295
Mbye Cham

15 Memory and History in the Politics of Adaptation: Revisiting the Partition of India in Tamas 313
Ranjani Mazumdar

16 The Written Scene: Writers as Figures of Cinematic Redemption 331
Paul Arthur

Index 343

“Stam and Raengo's Literature and Film offers a wonderful collection of approaches to the multifaceted and sometimes contradictory relationship between the written word and the filmic image, bringing into the discussion a refreshing series of examples drawn from international and minority cinemas.”

Richard Pea, Columbia University

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.

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.