The History of British Literature on Film, 1895-2015

by Greg M. Colón Semenza, Greg M. Colón Semenza (Editor), Bob Hasenfratz, Bob Hasenfratz (Editor)

Overview

From The Death of Nancy Sykes (1897) to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) and beyond, cinematic adaptations of British literature participate in a complex and fascinating history. The History of British Literature on Film, 1895-2015 is the only comprehensive narration of cinema's 100-year-old love affair with British literature. Unlike previous studies of literature and film, which tend to privilege particular authors such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen, or particular texts such as Frankenstein, or particular literary periods such as Medieval, this volume considers the multiple functions of filmed British literature as a cinematic subject in its own right-one reflecting the specific political and aesthetic priorities of different national and historical cinemas. In what ways has the British literary canon authorized and influenced the history and aesthetics of film, and in what ways has filmed British literature both affirmed and challenged the very idea of literary canonicity? Seeking to answer these and other key questions, this indispensable study shows how these adaptations emerged from and continue to shape the social, artistic, and commercial aspects of film history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623560430
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/21/2015
Series:	The History of World Literatures on Film
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Greg Semenza is Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA. His books include The English Renaissance in Popular Culture (2010), Graduate Study for the 21st Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities (2005; 2nd ed. 2010), Milton in Popular Culture (2006), and Sport, Politics, and Literature in the English Renaissance (2004). He has published numerous essays on film and recently edited for Shakespeare Studies a special forum issue entitled "After Shakespeare on Film."

Robert Hasenfratz is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA. His books include Reading Old English (2005/11), Ancrene Wisse (2001), and Beowulf Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography 1979-1990 (1993). He has written articles on medieval literature and culture and edits the Jourbanal of Medieval Religious Cultures.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Attractions, Tricks, and Fairy-Tales: Visual and Theatrical Culture in the Brit-Lit Film, 1896-1907
2. “Crude, Vicious, and Lascivious Entertainments:” The Rise of the Brit-Lit Feature Film, 1907-1920

3. Inter-Nationalizing the Brit-Lit Film: Hollywood and the World Film Market, 1920-1927

4. Sound, Studios, and Censorship: The Brit-Lit Film, 1927-1939

5. The Empire Strikes Back: Britain's Reclamation of Brit-Lit, 1939-1957

6. Traditions and Revolutions: The Brit-Lit Film, 1957-1979

7. The Brit-Lit Film after Film: 1979-2015

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

“This rich analysis will appeal to Anglophile literature and film buffs alike.” –Library Journal

“As adaptation studies proliferate and grow more rigorous into the twenty-first century, what has been lacking is the broad cultural and historical range that this fine book maps, providing a crucial perspective on the long evolution of adaptation in Britain.” —Timothy Corrigan, Professor of English, Cinema Studies, and History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, USA, author of The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker, and editor of Film and Literature: An Introduction and Reader

“Starting from the premise that 'history matters,' Greg M. Colón Semenza and Robert Hasenfratz embark on a survey of adaptations' changing sociocultural and political contexts across the twentieth century and since. Their core mission is to examine what the shifting industrial and commercial contexts of 'Brit-Lit' film adaptations reveal about wider trends in transatlantic relations, film-making practice and the discipline of adaptation studies itself. In fluent style they chart a vast swathe of film history and provide adaptation scholars with new ways of thinking about the long history of literature's lives on screen.” —Simone Murray, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University, Australia, and author of The Adaptation Industry

“Rich, insightful and extraordinarily wide-ranging, this wonderful study of British Literature on film will be an invaluable resource. Superbly illustrated, eloquently written and truly global in scope, Semenza and Hasenfratz's book is a ground-breaking piece of work.” —Mark Thornton Burnett, Professor of English, Queen's University Belfast, UK

“The book’s mantra is ‘history matters’ and the authors’ approach throughout the volume is scrupulously historical, considering adaptations not by text or author, but in relation to other adaptations of a given period, progressing from the silent period to the current day. One thing they demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that in adaptation studies it is time to recognize that history matters.” -Deborah Cartmell Faculty of Humanities, De Montfort University, UK, Adaptation

From the Publisher

Rich, insightful and extraordinarily wide-ranging, this wonderful study of British Literature on film will be an invaluable resource. Superbly illustrated, eloquently written and truly global in scope, Semenza and Hasenfratz's book is a ground-breaking piece of work.

Mark Thornton Burnett

Starting from the premise that 'history matters,' Greg M. Colón Semenza and Robert Hasenfratz embark on a survey of adaptations' changing sociocultural and political contexts across the twentieth century and since. Their core mission is to examine what the shifting industrial and commercial contexts of 'Brit-Lit' film adaptations reveal about wider trends in transatlantic relations, film-making practice and the discipline of adaptation studies itself. In fluent style they chart a vast swathe of film history and provide adaptation scholars with new ways of thinking about the long history of literature's lives on screen.

Simone Murray

As adaptation studies proliferate and grow more rigorous into the twenty-first century, what has been lacking is the broad cultural and historical range that this fine book maps, providing a crucial perspective on the long evolution of adaptation in Britain.

Timothy Corrigan

02/01/2016
To assess truly the impact of British literature on cinema, readers will have to brush up on more than the works of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Mary Shelley. That is the contention of this book which claims to be "the only comprehensive narration of cinema's 100-year-old love affair with British literature." Coeditors Colón Semenza and Hasenfratz (both, English, Univ. of Connecticut) explore the influence of British literature on films from The Death of Nancy Sykes (1897) to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) via the context of history, including how the 1958 adaptation of The Quiet American "actively attempts to refute the novel." General and film indices are provided. VERDICT This rich analysis will appeal to Anglophile literature and film buffs alike.

Library Journal