Film Adaptation SYNOPSIS
Some of the earliest feature films were derived from classic literature. Even today, most of the movies we see are adaptations of one kind or another. People who have never read Jane Austen can see her characters on the screen; but filmgoers can also see materials taken from theater, television, comic books, and every other medium.
The essays in this volume, most of which have never before been published, raise fundamental questions about cinema and adaptation; what is the nature of the "literary' and the "cinematic"? Why do so many of the films described as adaptations seem to derive from canonical literature rather that from other sources? How do the different media affect the ways stories are told?
Film Adaptations offers fresh approaches to the art, theory, and cultural politics of movie adaptations, even challenging what is meant by the term "adaptation" itself. Contributors examine the process of adaptation in both theory and practice, discussing a wide variety of films. James Naremore's introduction provides an accessible historical overview of the field and reveals the importance of adaptation study to the many different academic disciplines now attracted to the analysis of film as commodity, document, and cultural artifact.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Most of these essays are newly published and raise issues such as the nature of the cinematic vs. the nature of the literary, just why there are so many adaptations, and the effects of the same story told in different mediums. Contributors include Andr Bazin, Dudley Andrew, Robert B. Ray, and Robert Stam on adaptation in theory; and Richard Maltby, Lesley Stern, and others on adaptation in practice. Topics/films include Welles's Shakespeare on film, , and , , and . Naremore is professor of communication and culture at Indiana University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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