Literary Adaptation Of Dracula
Chapter One: IntroductionThe purpose of this thesis is to explore the field of literary adaptation within a literature/ film context with a view to answering the question of whether the critical stance taken against the adaptive process can withstand scrutiny in light of the operational practices at work within both industries. This introduction serves to provide an outline of this stance and identifies some of the most prominent reactions to adaptation.
In order to provide some context and contrast, it is necessary to consider the driving forces behind these particular industries. Joe Moran, in his 1997 article The Role of Multimedia Conglomerates in American Trade Publishing, identifies that there is an enduring image of a company publishing …show more content…
The 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula indicates that the filmmaker has taken this single text and intends to provide the audience with a transposition. . However, comments made by the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, in the documentary accompanying the film (entitled Bloodlines…)’ call into question the real intentions at work. Although it is not explicitly highlighted, the content of this documentary indicates a strong sense of tension between Coppola and James V.Hart (the screenwriter) in terms of the direction the adaptation could have taken. Whilst Hart identifies the aforementioned path of extreme divergence taken by the cinema with Dracula, suggesting that this adaptation goes someway to rectifying that, Coppola directly undermines this by stating that he attempted to build on the foundations that this history had already laid down. What this actually means is that Coppola chose to draw from the very same material that the film was positioned against and, although he should receive some credit for his honesty, the accompanying admission that he wanted ‘something that was commercial’cannot help but evoke an Eisnerian model of production in which fidelity is only adhered to as far as it assists the financial …show more content…
Lane Crothers, in Globalization and American Popular Culture, argues that its existence as a near prerequisite for any Hollywood film is because it serves as a microcosmic endorsement of the (American) ideologically fuelled notion that any individual can achieve success simply through hard effort and dedication and the promotion of the converse stance that a lack of progression cannot be down to anything more than a lackadaisical attitude. Whilst other cinematic organisations may have the scope to divert their narratives away from this doctrine, the omission of it in a Hollywood film is akin to a direct questioning of the American way of life and a suggestion that there are factors beyond an individual’s control which influence the direction of their life. For an institution which places profit above all over considerations, this rumination is an extremely ‘high risk’ strategy. It may not be possible to justify the changes that Coppola has made but at least it is possible to provide some rational from
In order to provide some context and contrast, it is necessary to consider the driving forces behind these particular industries. Joe Moran, in his 1997 article The Role of Multimedia Conglomerates in American Trade Publishing, identifies that there is an enduring image of a company publishing …show more content…
The 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula indicates that the filmmaker has taken this single text and intends to provide the audience with a transposition. . However, comments made by the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, in the documentary accompanying the film (entitled Bloodlines…)’ call into question the real intentions at work. Although it is not explicitly highlighted, the content of this documentary indicates a strong sense of tension between Coppola and James V.Hart (the screenwriter) in terms of the direction the adaptation could have taken. Whilst Hart identifies the aforementioned path of extreme divergence taken by the cinema with Dracula, suggesting that this adaptation goes someway to rectifying that, Coppola directly undermines this by stating that he attempted to build on the foundations that this history had already laid down. What this actually means is that Coppola chose to draw from the very same material that the film was positioned against and, although he should receive some credit for his honesty, the accompanying admission that he wanted ‘something that was commercial’cannot help but evoke an Eisnerian model of production in which fidelity is only adhered to as far as it assists the financial …show more content…
Lane Crothers, in Globalization and American Popular Culture, argues that its existence as a near prerequisite for any Hollywood film is because it serves as a microcosmic endorsement of the (American) ideologically fuelled notion that any individual can achieve success simply through hard effort and dedication and the promotion of the converse stance that a lack of progression cannot be down to anything more than a lackadaisical attitude. Whilst other cinematic organisations may have the scope to divert their narratives away from this doctrine, the omission of it in a Hollywood film is akin to a direct questioning of the American way of life and a suggestion that there are factors beyond an individual’s control which influence the direction of their life. For an institution which places profit above all over considerations, this rumination is an extremely ‘high risk’ strategy. It may not be possible to justify the changes that Coppola has made but at least it is possible to provide some rational from