This Companion offers a multi-disciplinary approach to literature on film and television. Writers are drawn from different backgrounds to consider broad topics, such as the issue of adaptation from novels and plays to the screen, canonical and popular literature, fantasy, genre and adaptations for children. There are also case studies, such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the nineteenth-century novel and modernism, which allow the reader to place adaptations of the work of writers within a wider context. An interview with Andrew Davies, whose work includes Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Bleak House (2005), reveals the practical choices and challenges that face the professional writer and adaptor. The Companion as a whole provides an extensive survey of an increasingly popular field of study.
Introduction: Literature on screen: a synoptic view Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan; Part I. Theories of Literature on Screen: 1. Reading film and literature Brian McFarlane; 2. Literature on screen, a history: in the gap Timothy Corrigan; Part II. History and Contexts: 3. Gospel narratives on silent film Judith Buchanan; 4. William Shakespeare, filmmaker Douglas Lanier; 5. The nineteenth-century novel on film: Jane Austen Linda V. Troost; 6. Modernism and adaptation Martin Halliwell; 7. Postmodern adaptation: pastiche, intertextuality and re-functioning Peter Brooker; Part III. Genre, Industry, Taste: 8. Heritage and literature on screen: Heimat and heritage Eckart Voigts-Virchow; 9. 'Don't let's ask for the moon!': reading and viewing the woman's film Imelda Whelehan; 10. Post-classical fantasy cinema: The Lord of the Rings I. Q. Hunter; 11. Adapting children's literature Deborah Cartmell; 12. Literature on the small screen: television adaptations Sarah Cardwell; Part IV. Beyond the 'Literary': 13. Classic literature and animation: all adaptations are equal, but some are more equal than others Paul Wells; 14. High fidelity? Music in screen adaptations Annette Davison; 15. From screen to text: novelisation, the hidden continent Jan Baetens; 16. A practical understanding of literature on screen: two conversations with Andrew Davies Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan.
