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1. INTRODUCTION.
2.1.1.8. The seventeenth century: The Stuart Age and the Enlightment.
2.1.1.10. The nineteenth century: the Augustean Age and the Romantics.
2 1 1 11 Th t ti th t t th td
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2.1.1.11. The twentieth century up to the present day.
2.3.1.4. Adventure.
2.3.1.5. Comedies.
2.3.1.6. Epics.
2.3.1.7. Horror.
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2.3.1.10. War.
4. CONCLUSION.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1. INTRODUCTION.
The present unit, Unit 61, aims to provide a useful introduction to the impact
of cinema on the diffusion of literary works in the English language. In doing
so, we aim at reviewing the historical development of literature and the
cinema throughout time so as to analyse how the cinematic genre has
helped the literary genre to expand at a high speed all over the world and to
bring to life literary works which may be part of reality, such as ancient
history (Troia , featuring Bradd Pitt) or social conflicts (In the Name of the
Father , featured by Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford) or part of fiction (X-Men,
featuring Will Smith).
In this presentation we shall try to answer the question of ‘What was first?
Literature or cinema?’ At first sight, one might say that it was literature since
most films are based on literary works. Yet, the answer is that both of them
trace back to ancient times, and hence, it is almost impossible to pinpoint
the exact date. Nowadays, most historians agree that the literary genre is
linked to man’s first attempts of communication through language and
therefore, oral transmission literature in the past within religious and magic
practices whereas the story of cinema traditionally traces back to “the
ancient Greeks and moving shadows” (Parkinson,
1995). Yet, there is a question in the air: ‘Could the Homo Sapiens discover
the true magic of
cinema with moving shadows on the walls of primitive caves before they
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could speak?’
Then, the first part on (1) a history of literature and cinema will offer (a) a
history of literature from its origins to the present day in terms of literary age
and literary genres in (i) earlier times through religious sources and oral
tradition; (ii) the eleventh century, with epic and elegy; (iii) the twelfth
century, with romance and lyric; (iv) the thirteenth century, with lyrics and
prose; (v) the fourteenth century, with spiritual writing vs. secular prose; (vi)
the fifteenth century, with morality plays; (vii) the sixteenth century, under
the Tudor and Elizabethan Age; (viii) the seventeenth century, representing
the Stuart Age and the Enlightment; (ix) the eighteenth
century, with the industrial revolution in the Victorian period; (x) the
nineteenth century, half romantic and half Victorian; and finall, (xi) the
twentieth century up to the present day, with modernims and
experimentalism. Similarly, we shall start a journey through (b) a history of
cinema, to see how it developed into this century’s most popular form of
entertainment, as well as into an art form in (i) the early years, (ii) the
seventeenth and (iii) eighteenth century.
The second part, (2) from the birth of cinema up to the present day will
present (a) the three main stages in film era, that is, (i) the Silent Film Era, (ii)
the Golden Age or sound era, and (iii) the Second Golden Age, which
coincided with a new generation of fim- makers, nicknamed the
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Crime Fiction (1988); Ward & Trent, The Cambridge History of English and
American
Chapter 2 is divided then into three main sections: (1) the origins of literature
and cinema up to
1895, regarding (a) the story of cinema and (b) the story of literature in
terms of literary age and literary genres; (2) from the birth of cinema up to
the present day regarding (a) the three main stages in film era, that is, (i)
the Silent Era, in which there was nor sound or colour; (ii) the Golden Age, in
which sound arrived to the screen, and finally, (iii) the Second Golden Age,
which coincided with a new generation of film- makers, nicknamed the
‘movie brats’. These three stages will be described in cinematographic and
historical terms, since the three of them coincided with important historical
benchmarks at international level. Next section addresses the relationship of
(3) cinema and literature regarding literary adaptations in terms of (a)
main subjects and stories; (b) main cinema techniques adapted from
literature, and finally, (c) main similarities and differences.
We may say that literature holds timeless universal human truths which can
be read or listened to without regard to historical context of its production,
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Then when examining earlier works that took place in Britain (under the
influence of Celtic people), Britannia (under the rule of the Roman Empire)
and England (Anglo-Saxon England), we realise that literature is written
language since human settlement preceded recorded history by some
millennia, and Old English works (namely epic and lyric) preceded writing by
some generations. Thus, the earlier inhabitants of the island, the Celts (also
known as Britons) passed on no written literacy to their conquerors since
they had an oral literary tradition; yet, later on, the Romans brought about to
the island the art of writing through their historical literary accounts, for
instance, Tacitus’s Germania (AD 98) or St Jerome’s vulgate edition of the
Bible (AD 384).
Next, the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) were
illiterate so their orally- composed verses were not written unless they
formed part of runic inscriptions. When the Roman empire faded, the Saxons
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did not have to exchange their Germanic tongue for Latin although Latin
was the language of those who taught them to read and write. So, the
English learned to write only after they had been converted to Christ (the
process of Christianization) by missionaries sent from Rome in AD 597.
In fact, there is no evidence of Old English writing that is not Christian, since
the only literates were clerics. Linguistically and historically, the English
poems composed by Caedmon after 670 and Bede (AD 676-735) are the
earliest we know about. Hence, oral poetry (epic) was an art which had
evolved over generations and was considered to be an art of memorable
speech. It dealt with a set of heroic and narrative themes in a common
metrical form, and had evolved to a point where its audience appreciated a
richly varied style and storytelling technique (Alexander,
2000).
Yet, the figure of Alfred, the fourth son of the King of Wessex from 871, proves
highly relevant in the development of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England, not
only because he defended his reign against the Danes who had overrun all
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y g g
the English kingdoms except his own, but also because he translated
wisdom books into English. Alfred may cast an interesting light on literacy as
well as on literature since he reported that “when he came to the throne he
could not think of a single
Alfred had some needful wise authors to carry out this task, for instance,
Augustine (354-430), Orosius (earlyl fifth century), Boethius (c. 480-524),
and Gregory (c. 540- 604). Since Old English verse was namely oral to
record written laws, Alfred established English as a literary language in
authorising versions of essential books from Latin into English prose. Hence
we find such works (AD 878) as Bede’s Eclesiastical History, Orosius’ Histories,
Gregory’s Pastoral Care and Dialogues, Augustine’s Soliloquies and Boethius’
Consolation of Philosophy.
These three works represent the starting point towards the end of the Old
English period. First, the epic poem of Beowulf 1(c. 909), a poem of historic
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1
The poem Beowulf was found in a manuscript of the late 10th century, but
was probable composed two centurias earlier, and it is set in a world more
than two centuries earlier still, on the coasts of the Baltic,
the north-west Germanic world from which the English had come to Britain
(Alexander, 2000).
Yet, the most striking early English poems are the Elegies of the Exeter Book,
which are divided into heroic elegies (i.e. ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘The Seafarer’)
and love elegies (i.e. ‘The Husband’s Message’, ‘The Wife’s Complaint’). This
type of poems are dramatic monologues whose speaker is unnamed and
whose soliloquy moves from his own sufferings to a general lament. Finally,
battle poetry is relevant in this period because German warriors were said to
recite poetry before battle, according to the Roman historian Tacitus.
10th century and this prose gave way to impressive political and legal writings
which provided
the laity with the religious and civil materials long available to the clergy in
Latin. Then, by
1000 the humane Latin culture which developed between the renaissance of
learning at the court of Charlemagne and the 12th century renaissance, had
found substantial expression in English.
There were changes in the nature of the language, notably the use of
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1016) saw an artistic revival, but there were disunity and Danish invasions
(The Viking Age). The conquest of England by Vikings and then by Norman
kings disrupted cultural activity, and changed the language of the rulers.
Yet, Latin remained the language of the church, but the hierarchy was
largely replaced by Normans, and English uses were done away with. But
how did the Norman Conquest affect medieval literature?
As stated above, the eleventh century was characterized by the use of epic
and elegy within literary works. Yet, the Norman Conquest (1066) meant the
establishment of a new social, political, economic, cultural, linguistic and
even literary situation in which the type of works were to be changes as well
into romance and lyric. Therefore, the language of the new rulers, French,
displaced English as the medium of literature and also influenced the way of
writing.
There is evidence that William the Conqueror tried to learnt English, but he
gave up. On the other hand, Saxons dealing with him had to learn French,
and French became the language of the court and the law for three
centuries in such as way that the Normans spoke Norman French, which was
commonly known in England as Anglo-Norman.
In fact, the linguistic situation during the eleventh century and early twelfth
centuries is described as a relationship of ‘vertical bilingualism’ (or
sometimes called trilingualism, if we consider the role of Latin). This situation
describes the coexistence of two (or three) languages, which were not
wholly mixed up. Possibly, this mix appeared in mercantile centres or
perhaps as a desire to look socially sophisticated.
So, educated men for the next three centuries were trilingual, and many
homes bilingual. Literature in English suffered then a severe disruption in
1066 since the classical Old English verse died out, just to revive later on in a
very different form, romance, whereas prose continued in the form of
sermons within the clergy.
As stated above, when the classical Old English verse died out, it revived in a
very different form, romance , and the prose developed in a lyric form. When
this new writing appeared, it was in an English which had become very
different from that of the eleventh century. The reasons for this include the
lack of any written standard to discourage dialectal variety, scribal practice,
linguistic change and, above all, a new literary consciousness. This is the
background for the first of our works to comment on, the Arthurian legend
under oral tradition.
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literature belongs to the age of chivalry and the Crusades after 1100. Yet,
according to the historian Gildas and his work ‘Excidio Britanniae’ (c.550),
there was a Romanized Celtic chieftain called Ambrosius Aureliano, who
became a Celtic (British) hero agains the Saxon invasion in west part of
Britain.
Later on, another British author, called Nennius (c.800) reported about this
chieftain, and said that he became a servant of Vortigern (under the
influence of a spell) to defeat the Saxons. Then, in the same report it is said
that a man called Arthur led his warriors to victory in twelve successful
battles against the Saxons, the latter taking place at Mons Badonicus in
today’s Wales (Asimov, 1990:47). So, later oral legends created King Arthur,
his Knights of the Round Table, and even Camelot was set up as the
legendary capital of Arthurian reign in Cadbury Hill (Wales).
It was in northern France that the legends of Arthur, his Round Table and the
Quest for the Grail improved before they re-crossed the Channel to the
northern half of the Norman kingdom. Note that although the Normans
conquered southern Scotland, Wales and Ireland, they did not include in the
Arthurian story2. Geoffrey’s work was quite a popular story until the
Renaissance, and a popular legend afterwards. Note that the character of
Merlin in this story has Celtic origins, since he is an enigmatic figure related
to ancient druids.
Geoffrey’s legendary history of the island of Britain was put into English by
Layamon, a parish priest at Arley Regis in Worcestershire, an area where old
verse traditions lasted. His work was written in 14,000 lines and makes no
distinction between the British and the English, thus allowing the English to
regard Arthur, their British enemy, as English. Although his talent was for
narrative, he employed old formulas with less economy when describing
Arthur’s death. In
2
The plot is based on the fact that “the kings of Britain descend from Brutus,
the original conqueror of the island of Albion, then infested by giants. This
Brutus is the grandson ofAeneas the Trojan, from whom Virgil traced the
kings of Rome Brutus calls Albion ‘Britain’ after his own name whose capital
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kings of Rome. Brutus calls Albion ‘Britain’, after his own name, whose capital
is
New Troy, later called London. The Romans conquer Britain, but the Britons,
under Lucius, reconquer
Rome. They fight bravely under king Arthur against the Saxon invader, but
Arthur, poised to conquer Europe, has to turn back at the Alps to put down
the revolt of his nephew Mordred. Fatally wounded at the battle of Camla nn,
Arthur is taken to the island of Avalon, whence, according to the wizard
Merlin’s prophecies, he shall one day return. Geoffrey stops in the sixth
century at King Cadwallader, after whom the degenerate Britons
succumbed to the Saxons” (Alexander, 2000:39).
repeated in Malory’s Morte Darthur (c.1470), who also tried to compile the
main body of
So, during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries there was a change from
‘gestes’ (songs of res gestae, Lat. ‘things done’) to romances of chivalry as
part of the rise of feudalism. Hence, a knight’s duty was to serve God and the
King with a religious orientation and a legal force, which was not just an
honour-code in literature. So, the concept of chivalry was considered to be
historical as well as literary and its cultural prestige was spread through
Romance.
Courtly literature.
The French rulers enjoyed romances of antiquity, about Thebes, Aeneas, Troy
and Alexander and, actually, Benoît de Sainte-Maure produced a 30,000-
line ‘Roman de Troie’ (1165) at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine Such popular
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line Roman de Troie (1165) at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Such popular
stories made reference to classical themes full of marvels (Rome), but
Arthurian romance was even more popular with French ladies and hence,
the first developments of Geoffrey’s Arthurian legend material were in
French.
As we will see, the romance is a lasting legacy of the Middle Ages, not only to
works of fantasy in later centuries (such as Edmund Spenser’s Faerie
Queene or the Gothic novel but also to such marvellous but pseudo-realist
works as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela).
The thirteenth century was just about to bring changes at all levels when,
shortly after AD 1200, England lost an important part of her possessions
abroad. The Loss of Normandy would have, for our purposes, linguistic
consequences, such as the loss of prestige of Norman-French and Anglo-
Norman. Consequently, the maintenance of French into some kind of
artificial language had an influence on the literary productions in that
period, namely on lyrics and prose. Yet, this nationalistic feeling did not
extend to the King and courtly nobility, but linguistically speaking, the loss of
prestige of Norman French and Anglo-Norman reinforced the functional use
of English, the use of Latin as the official language for records, and the
adoption of Norman French by native English speakers.
Literature, then, reflected this situation at two main levels, first, by showing
the relevance of medieval institutions and authority; and second, by means
of lyrics and English prose. Regarding the former, The Canterbury Tales by
Chaucer shall look at institutions and mental habits which shaped this new
English literature. Nowadays, modern literature is mostly concerned with
secular life and lay people, but for over a thousand years, thought, culture
and art in Europe were promoted by the Church. The clergy were the source
of education at that time as well as of arts and literature.
Second, regading the latter, lyrics and English prose dominated the
literature scene at that time. Thus, these two new academic attitudes
inspired clerical literature, such as The Owl and the Nightingale (early 13th
century), which became the bird of love in Provençal lyrics of the early
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During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries new historical events, such as
the Hundred Years’ War, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt, reinforced
the national feeling which had ensued the loss of Normandy and led the
inhabitants of the island to a general adoption of English. On the other hand,
the bubonic and pneumonic plague ravaged Europe in the mid fourteenth
century and, its effects were felt at all levels, particularly the social and
economic ones since the drastic reduction of the amount of land under
cultivation became the ruin of many landowners. Therefore, the shortage of
labour implied a general rise in wages for peasants and, consequently,
provided new fluidity to the stratification of society and afforded a new
status to the middle and lower social classes, whose native language was
English.
It is in this environment where spiritual writing vs. secular prose comes into
force, as well as the Ricardian poetry, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s works. Thus,
we can namely distinguish spiritual writing, which seeks a disciplicine of the
spirit to become closer to God, and secular prose, which was used for
practical matters in general terms. So, spiritual writing is represented by
Ri h d R ll ( 1300 49) h i l d d i hi E li h iti (S f
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Richard Rolle (c.1300-49), who included in his English writings (Song of
Songs, Form of Living, Ego Dormio) allegorical commentaries, poems and
prose marked by a musical rhetoric, and also Walter Hilton (d.1379) who also
addressed the spiritual life in his writings (The Scale of Perfection). On the
other hand, secular prose appeared when reformers started to translate the
Bible into English since they had to produce an English Vulgate so literal as
to be almost unreadable.
The reign of Richard II (1372-98) saw the flowering of a mature English poetry
in Middle English. Besides lyric and religious prose of the highest quality,
Arthurian verse romances were spirited in the Stanzaic ‘Morte’ (c.1390) and
the Alliterative ‘Morte’ (c.1400). The revival of English alliterative verse
produced at least two crucial poems, ‘Piers Plowman’ (c.1377) by William
Langland and ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, which was found with three
other fine poems (Patience, Cleanness and Pearl) in the ‘Gawain’
manuscript (c.1390). Each poem is strikingly original and intelligent, but
‘Gawain’ must stand here for all. On the other hand, verse drama was also
tool gave a richer tone and a deeper social reach than French or Latin at
that age. Chaucer is said to be “a bright star in a sky with many bright stars”
since his relevance was recognized at his death. His mature and last work,
The Canterbury Tales, is today his most popular.
Regarding literature, after Chaucer and Gower were buried outside the City
of London, in the churches in Westminster and Southwark next to which each
had lived, there was good English writing in the fifteenth century, particularly
in lyric and drama and prose, but no major poet. Yet, Thomas Hoccleve
(1369-1426), who called Chaucer his ‘father’, scratched his living as a copyist
at Westminster, lacking his master’s skill and his diplomacy. His job was
reported to be
‘boring’.
So, we can affirm that the decasyllable lost its music in the 15th century, as
d l di d i fl i li h d ih i
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words altered in accent and inflection. As English topped up with prestige
words from Latin and French and doubled its resources, its eloquence took
the form of reduplication, pairing English and Romance synonyms. New
literary streams and events were entering this century, for instance, drama
(mystery and morality plays), religious lyric, Scottish poetry and the most
important event, the arrival of printing, with which ‘quality’ marketing had
begun. That meant that chivalry and romance were dying, but manners
could be learned.
Regarding literary work, although English poetry was the dominant tradition
of fifteenth- century (established by Chaucer and Gower), there was also
good English writing in the fifteenth century, particularly in lyric and drama
and prose, but no major poet. Yet, other
Moreover, the decasyllable lost its music in the 15th century, as words altered
in accent and inflection. As English topped up with prestige words from Latin
and French and doubled its resources, its eloquence took the form of
reduplication, pairing English and Romance synonyms. New literary streams
and events were entering this century, for instance:
it, liturgical drama, spread over Europe after the 10th century. Although they
were last suppressed in 1580 at the Reformation, they continued in Catholic
Europe As Greek tragedy began in religious rite medieval European drama
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Europe. As Greek tragedy began in religious rite, medieval European drama
also began with the representation of the central Christian story in the Mass,
and in the annual cycle of services developed by the early Church, where
Mystery Plays have their origin (other records survive from Italy, Spain,
France, Germany, Ireland and Scotland).
o On the other hand, morality plays showed the fate of the single human
person in the 15th and 16th centuries, played by travelling companies. The
moralities had a final moral, but it is to the Mysteries that Elizabethan
dramma will owe a
Also, religious lyric developed from Latin songs and hymns. If we trace back
in history, hymns came into the Latin church in the fourth century, bringing in
accentual rhythm and rhyme from popular songs. There is a large literature
of Latin songs, sacred and profane, from every century.
The oldest prose narrative was also familiar in English, apart from those in
scripture. Hence, Le Morte Darthur (1470) of Sir Thomas Malory, which
derived from the French prose La Mort Artu. Malory acknowledges the French
prose books on whichhe
draws, but not his English verse sources. His prose is rhythmical, and there is
a larger narrative rhythm to his scenes, well-paced and with dramatic
exchanges, which tells us of conflict and loss in a courtesy world. In fact, the
status of Le Morte Darthur owes much to its printing by William Caxton
(1422-91), who also printed a Canterbury Tales in 1477 (Alexander, 2000).
Finally, Scottish poetry took place in the late fifteenth century and showed a
mix of four tongues: Highland Gaelic. Lowland English, clerkly Latin, and lordly
Anglo- Norman French.
Historically speaking, the sixteenth century coincides in its early years with
the Tudor Age, which not only marked the start of Reinassance, but also the
end of the medieval Arthur. The early Tudor period, particularly the reign of
Henry VIII was marked by a break with the Roman Catholic Church and a
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Henry VIII, was marked by a break with the Roman Catholic Church and a
weakening of feudal ties, which brought about a vast increase in the power
of the monarchy. Stronger political relationships with the Continent were
also developed, increasing England’s exposure to Renaissance culture as
‘the revival of learning’. This meant a turn to classical models of verse, which
began with a man Chaucer called ‘Fraunceys Petrak, the lauriat poete’ (who
was an Italian humanist and collected classical manuscripts).
Hence, humanism became the most important force in English literary and
intellectual life, both in its narrow sense (the study and imitation of the Latin
classics) and in its broad sense (the affirmation of the secular, in addition to
the otherworldly, concerns of people), and in fact, the contrast between
Renaissance learning based on classical models and medieval ignorance is
often exaggerated. Yet, in 1517, the Protestant Reformation began with Martin
Luther’s attacks on the Church’s Penitential system, order and doctrine.
Also, Henry asked Rome for the divorce of Catherine of Aragon (unable to
produce a male heir) to marry Ann Boleyn. Then, after being
excommunicated (since he went ahead with marriage), Henry made
himself Supreme Head of the Church (at that time the Church of England)
and held to Catholic doctrines, but in the six years under his young son
Edward VI (1547-53), reform was imposed. For the next six years, her
daughter Mary returned Catholicism, recalling the Benedictines to
Westminster Abbey. Finally, Elizabeth I (1558-
The Reformation brought about authors like Thomas More (1478-1535), Sir
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and The Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) as the main
representative figures in this period. Moreover, we may mention first, the
development of religious and instructive prose with the aim to promote
native vernacular English. Since prose has such a varity of tasks, its history is
not readily summarized, but we can distinguish bible translation, since the
Reformation created an urgent need for a religious prose (Miles Coverdale
-1488-1568- produced the first complete printed English bible in 1539).
Secondly, instructive prose perfects a storytelling mode originally oral. Writer
took their ideas of style from Cicero and Quintilian to get Latin-derived
words which would worry linguistic patriots. Hence, main authors to be
mentioned are Sir Thomas Elyot (c.1490-1546) who wrote ‘Governor’ (1531) for
Henry VIII, the humanist John Cheke (1514-1557) who became tutor to
Edward VI, and Roger Ascham (1515-1568) who dedicated his ‘Toxophilus’
(1545) to Henry, which earned him a pension.
The Reformation may also account for drama. The fact the major literature
of the period 1540-
1579 was in the translation of religious texts meant “the suppression of the
monasteries and their schools,which did not go into education and poets
needed patrons. Before the Elizabethan theatre opened, there was no
paying profession of writing. University men tried vainly to bridge the gap
between uncommercial ‘gentle’ status and scribbling for a tiny market. Yet
in this fallow period secular drama began. Mystery and morality plays
continued, and the Mysteries until Shakespeare’s day” (Alexander, 2000).
for instance, ‘Ralph Roister Doister (first English comedy for pupils), and
Jasper Heywood (1535- 1598), John’s son, who translated into English
Seneca’s ‘Troas’.
So, these forces developed during the reign (1558–1603) of Elizabeth I, which
became one of the most fruitful eras in literary history.The activities and
literature of the Elizabethans reflected a new nationalism, which expressed
itself also in the works of chroniclers (John Stow, Raphael Holinshed, and
others), historians, and translators and even in political and religious tracts.
A wide range of new genres, themes, and ideas were incorporated into
English literature, and Italian poetic forms, especially the sonnet, became
models for English poets.
So, the last two decades of the Elizabethan golden age are so crowded with
special talents: in
1552 were born Edmund Spenser and Walter Ralegh, and in 1554 Philip
Sidney, John Lyly and Richard Hooker. This generation began what was
completed by Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare (b.1564), and
John Donne and Ben Johnson (b.1572) at the end of Tudor England; let alone
the second-rank dramatists and the theologians (Rogers, 1987).
Hence this period saw a variety of prose, artful, lively and dignified variety of
literary styles among which we may distinguish: verse (Sir Philip Sidney,
Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Ralegh, the Jacobethans, Christopher Marlowe),
song (Thomas Campion), prose (John Lyly, Thomas Nashe, Richard Hooker),
and namely, drama (Shakespeare, and an unprecedented abundance of
non-dramatic poets and translators). It is worth remembering that
Shakespeare has been one of the main inspirations for the cinema business.
The variety was called ‘Elizabethan Drama’ for Queen Elizabeth, who was
popular for her love of religion and arts. When the Renaissance reached
England, this intellectual and artistic impulse found its fullest and most
lasting expression in the drama which, due to a fortunate group of
coincidences, affected the people of England at a moment when the
country was undergoing a rapid and peaceful expansion. In addition, the
development of the language and the forms of versification had reached a
point which made possible the most triumphant literary achievement which
that country has seen: the Elizabethan Drama In fact the Elizabethan Age
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that country has seen: the Elizabethan Drama. In fact, the Elizabethan Age
achieved this literary success through different intellectual and artistic
representations of reality: the chronicle history, tragedy and comedy.
“With the revival of learning came naturally the study and imitation of the
ancient classical drama, and in some countries this proved the chief
influence in determining the prevalent type of drama for generations to
come. But in England, though we can trace important results of the
2.1.1.8. The seventeenth century: The Stuart Age and the Enlightment.
The seventeenth century has its starting point in the death of Elizabeth I
(1603) and is to be framed upon the Stuart succession line, thus under the
rule of James I (1603-1625); his son, Charles I (1625-1642), who ruled until civil
war broke out in 1642; then Cromwell (1642- 1660), until monarchy was
restored by Charles II (1660-1685); this was followed by his brother, James II
(1685-1689) who, in 1668, fled before his invading son- in- law, the
Dutchman William of Orange became William III; and finally , William and
Mary II (1689-1707), who were succeeded by Mary’s sister, Queen Anne (1702-
1713).
Regarding literature, we can talk about different literary conditions under the
rule of Cromwell and the Restoration since the former showed a Puritan
attitude against Renaissance culture and manners whereas the latter
inaugurated a new temper and a cultural style which lasted into the
eighteenth century. Actually, with the return of Charles II as King in 1660, new
models of poetry and drama came in from France, where the court had
been in exile. Later on in James’ I reign, high ideals had combined with
daring wit and language, but the religious and political extremism of the
mid-century broke that combination.
literature new importance. The civil, secular, social culture of the Restoration
period is often called Augustan, since its writers saw parallels between the
restored monarchy and the peace restored by the Emperor Augustus after
vivil war and the assassination of Caesar had ended the Roman republic.”
It is relevant to bear in mind that those who had remained in England during
the Commonwealth had faced years of strict moral repression, and those
who fled to France had acquired some of the decadence bred across the
channel. In combination, these two forces created a nation of wealthy, witty,
amoral hedonists, whose theatre reflected their lifestyles. Thus was born the
Restoration Tragedy and the Comedy of Manners.
Yet, in the Restoration period, it is relevant to say that that Restoration verse,
prose and stage comedy were marked by world ly scepticism clearly shown
in the works of Bunyan, Milton and
Dryden. In fact, the only works worth mentioning from these forty years
(1660-1700) to have been read in every generation since are Bunyan’s The
Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1679), some poems by John Dryden , and the better
Restoration comedies.
First of all, regarding drama , it is worth mentioning that this is one of the
most affected genres by the English Civil War in 1642 and the figure of
Cromwell, since one of the first acts after the Civil War was to order the
closing all the theatres in London for the sake of purity. Yet, when Charles II
returned, he gave literature chances and the theatres opened again,
determined to reject Puritan earnestness. As a result, the king’s friends came
back from France with a more secular, sceptical and civilized tone, and
above all, neo-classical ideas. Hence Charles patronized the Royal Sociey,
the Royal Observatory, the theatre and the opera, and soon the Restoration
Tragedy and the Comedy of Manners were born.
Secondly, poetry in this century came from the Court, the Church, and the
gentry of the theatre. Hence the first half of the century (to 1642) flourished
under the names of: Ben Jonson (1572- 1637), a professional poet as well as
playwright, whose clarit y, edge and economy behind his writing produced
one of his most famous poems Works (1616); also, we find metaphysical
poets (Henry King, George Herbert, Thomas Carew, Henry Crashaw, John
Cleveland Abrahan Cowley Andrew Marvell Henry Vaughan Thomas
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Cleveland, Abrahan Cowley, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Thomas
Traherne), devotional poets such as George Herbert (1593-1633) whose
poems are homely in imagery and simple in language, and Henry Vaughan
(1621- 95), Herbert’s disciple, among others; and cavaliers poets who wrote
with a gallant secular verse (Sir John Suckling, Sir Richard Lovelace, Andrw
Marvell); and finally, John Milton (1608-
1674), whose late work was aimed to a spiritual élite. Among his most
famous works are Lycidas (1637), an ambitious pastoral elegy for a
Cambridge contemporary, and Paradise Lost (1667), which was adapted
from a drama called Adam Unparadis’d (1642). Milton turned from poetry to
reforming prose at the Civil War and toughened his argumentative powers.
o When Royalist politics and religion lost favour in the 1680s, John Dryden
(1631-1700) turned from poetry to satire, and then to translation. He wrote in
every kind, but posterity has liked best the non-dramatic work of his later
career: his satire, his prose and his Virgil. Among his works we include the
most representative of his career: Works (1697) and Fables, Ancient and
Modern (1700).
o Also, the Royal Soc iety of London, which was the nursery of English
science, had members who helped in the production of prose (i.e. Wren,
Boyle, Hooke, Locke and Newton). There is much pleasurable minor prose, for
instance, Izaak Walton’s Lives (1665), the diaries of Samuel Pepys and John
Evelyn, the Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson by his daughter Lucy, the
account of the assassination of Buckingham in John Aubrey’s Brief Lives.
Also, we find other new forms such as brief biographies.
2.1.1.9. The eighteenth century: the Augustean Age and the Romantics.
This period coincides to a great extent with the Augustean Age (1714-1790),
and only in the last decade it is related to the Romantics (1790- 1837). The
political background is to be framed upon the Georgian succession line,
thus under the rule of Queen Anne (1701-1714); her German cousin, which
became George I (1714-1727); George II (1727-1760), George III (1760- 1820),
king of Great Britain and Ireland; and his son, George IV (1820-1830), who
was succeeded by his brother, William IV.
broad contrast to the disruption and change of the 17th. A desire for rational
agreement, and an increasing confidence, mark literary culture for a century
after 1688. There were cross-currents, exclusions and
Hence much 18th-century literature has a polite or aristocratic tone, but its
authors were largely middle -class, as were its readers. The art of letters had
social prestige, and poets found patrons among the nobility, who also wrote.
Congreve, Prior and Addison rose high in society, and so, despite his
disadvantages, did Pope”.
“Fiction was less polite and more commercial than poetry, and in Johnson’s
Dictionary, the prose writer most cited is Samuel Richardson, a joiner’s son
who became a printer and finally a novelist. Johnson himself was a
bookseller’s son. The pioneer realist, Daniel Defoe, was a hack journalist who
lived by his pen. Defoe and Richardson had a concern with individual
salvation, found in John Bunyan (17th century). Defoe and Richardson were
Dissenters. Henry Fielding, an Anglican, scorned Richardson’s concern with
inwardness and attacked social abuses” (2000:174).
Among the most popular poets we namely find Alexander Pope (1688-1744),
followed by Mattew Prior (1664-1721), John Gay (1685-1732), Edward Young
(1683-1765), Sir Samuel Garth (1661-1719), Lady Winchilsea (1661-1720),
Ambrose Philips (1675-1749), Thomas Parnell (1679- 1718) and Allan Ramsay
(1686-1758).
(1) the rise of the periodical press, which traces back to the first periodical
publication in Europe, the Gazetta (1536) in Venice. Later on, newssheets
were published in the Elizabethan England, followed by the publication of the
first regular English journal in
1622 by Thomas Archer and Nicholas Bourne. Political passions which led to
the Civil
War were reflected in a kind of journalistic writing, which in 1641, gave way to
the Diurnalls and home news. Yet, in 1659 Cromwell suppressed the licensed
( ith th ti f th ffi i l th kl Th P bli k
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press (with the exception of the official organ, the weekly The Publick
Intelligencer), but in 1682
the freedom of the Press was restored and large numbers of periodicals
appeared in different fashions. Hence The Daily Courant (1702), Defoe’s
Review (1704) (a Whig organ) and its opponent The Examiner (a Tory
paper); Steele’s The Tatler (1709), The Spectator (1711) and The Plebeian
(1719) as an early example of the political periodical.
(2) The rise of the essay refers to the development of writing productions
which “must be short, unmethodical, and written in a style that is literary,
easy, and elegant” (Albert,
1990:218). Again, the English essay traces back to the Elizabethan Age under
the work of Lodge, Lyly, and Greene, among others. Hence Sidney’s Apologie
for Poetrie (1595), Francis Bacon, who is regarded as the first real essayist in
English; Cowley’s Of Myself and The Garden; Dryden’s Essay of Dramatick
Poesie (1668), Locke’s An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690);
and Temple’s Essay of Poetry (1685). More recently, Addison’s The Tatler
(1709) and Steele’s The Spectator (1711).
(3) Prose narrative, still under the influence of allegory, is namely reflected in
Swift’s Gulliver Travels and Addison’s The Vision of Mirza , among others. Yet,
fiction is given prominence in the novels of Defoe and, in particular, in his
work Robinson Crusoe.
Regarding prose style, the most outstanding feature is the emergence of the
middle style, “pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent
elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or
pointed sentences” (Albert, 1990:220). It is a prose suitable for miscellaneous
purposes, that is, for newspapers, political or religious works, as well as for
essays, for history and biography.
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Also, the new education acts of the period made education compulsory,
which rapidly produced an enormous reading public. Actually, the
cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books among
which the most popular form was the novel. Finally, we also observe a strong
literary interaction between American and European writers (specially in
political and philosopical writings). In Britain, the influence of the great
German writers was continuous (Carlyle, Arnold).
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psychological epic) and William Morris’ The Earthly Paradise (a return to the
old romantic tale).
Similarly, there are no drama productions which are worth mentioning since
there were no efforts to revive the poetical drama. Of them all, we may
highlight Swinburne’s tragedies (concerned with Mary Queen of Scots),
Browning’s earlier plays (before he overdeveloped his style) and Tennyson’s
Ulysses and Tithonus.
Regarding prose (the novel), there is no doubt that the king style in prose
was the novel by the middle of the nineteenth century, which is presented
with a political, philosophical or social overtone (Thackeray, Dickens, Brontë).
Another variety of prose is the short story (namely developed in the next
century); the essays, in the treatise-style (Carlyle, Symonds, Pater); the
lecture, which became prominent both in England and in America; historical
novel, strongly represented by William Stubbs, Edward A. Freeman and
Samuel R. Gardiner; and finally, we find the scientific treatise so as to
account of the scientific developments of the period (Browne, Burton,
Berkeley).
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society in Britain at that period. Thus, some of their works are respectively,
Coningsby: or the New Generation (1844), Sybil: or The Two Nations (1845),
dealing with the politics of his day; Richelieu, or the Conspiracy (1839), A
Strange Story (1862) and The Coming Race (1871); Phineas Finn (1869) and
Phineas Redux (1874), where Trollope makes a satire of the political period;
and finally, Carlyle’s The French Revolution (1837) and Oliver Cromwell’s
Letters and Speeches (1845), in an attempt to criticize Cromwells’ methods.
finally, Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature (1863), Lay Sermons, Addresses and
1859).
§ Wilkie Collins (1824- 1889), who was considered to be the most successful
of the followers of Dickens, specialized in the mystery novel to which he
sometimes added a spice of the supernatural. Thus The Dead Secret (1857),
The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868) as one of his earliest
detective stories.
(2) Hence the resurgence of poetry whereas the novel and drama were the
protagonists in
the previous years. Actually, the pre-War years had seen relative eclipse of
poetry, and the dominance of the novel and drama as literary forms, but a
new and living poetical tradition was demanded and was met between the
Wars in his own work and in that of the new poets (T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Cecil
Day Lewis, Louis MacNeice). Following Albert (1990:508), “poetry again
became a vital literary form closely in touch with life, and if it did not oust
the novel from its primacy it certainly outstripped the drama”.
(3) Also, there was a desire for new forms and methods of presentation, and
in all the major literary genres the age produced revolutionary
developments thanks to two important inventions of the twentieth century:
the radio and the cinema.
(4) Actually, the radio and the cinema had an enormous impact on the
rapid development of
the media and also, had important effects on the literature of the time,
which applied these two media techniques. It must be borne in mind that
this novelty reduced the time devoted to reading (prose) and going to the
theatre (drama) since the radio brought literature at home and the cinema
brought a new form of leisure activity. In the form of broadcast stories, plays,
films, or literary discussion, a new field was opened for authors who applied
film techniques to a number of experiments in the novel.
(5) Finally, since people lived in a new atmosphere of fear and restlessness,
the demand
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was “for more and faster action, stronger and more violent stimulus, and the
general atmosphere thus created was by its very nature inimical to the
cultivation of literary pursuits, which necessarily demand a degree of
calmness of spirit and leisure of mind (Albert, 1990:509).”
For poetry, the hopes for a new world quickly disappeared in people’s minds
after the World War I and even less during the WWII, which caused a general
feeling of disillusionment and despair. Writers witnessed how culture
disintegrated with no positive values to replace it and soon they felt the
need for a new world, for a new outlook on life. Following Albert (1990), the
overall impression of this inter-war years coincide with a new awareness of
sociological factors
The emphasis on the evolution of new forms gave way to a great difficulty of
modern poetry, thus the dominance of form on content and the use of
eccentric themes. Hence this difficulty caused an increase in the use of ‘vers
libre’ and obscurity to appeal the complex states of mind. This trend was
encouraged by the popularity of the metaphysical conceit, which
accompanied the rebirth of symbolism (Yeats, French Symbolistes) and the
imitation of allusiveness (Eliot). Poetry reflected the situation of those inter-
war years: complexity, a refined sensibility, and the use of allusive and
indirect language.
Psychology and politics tried to come together under the figures of Sigmund
Freud and
Finally, the quest for stability increased as there was still no strongly
established poetic tradition to compare in stability with that of the Victorian
age, but a constructive approach to life. During the inter-War years we find
a great proportion of didactic verse,
As for poetry, the situation of the inter-War years was deeply felt in the
English theatre, and therefore, in Ireland within the Irish Literary Revival
Drama. Following Albert (1990), after the war the sociological factors which
affected this literary form were, broadly speaking, the conditions in the
theatre, the decline of realism, the development of comedy, the popularity
of the history play, the revival of poetic drama and the experiments abroad
and at home. Thus,
By the 1920s the conditions in the English theatre was defined as poor since
there were no worth productions since Shaw’s Pygmalion (1913). The
increasing demand for light and escapist entertaintment for troops had
made spectacle and musical comedy supreme on the London stage. It
must be borne in mind that in the early part of this period the cause of
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must be borne in mind that in the early part of this period the cause of
serious drama in England depended almost entirely on a few enlightened
individuals (Lilian Baylis, Sir Barry Jackson, Sir Nigel Playfair). In addition, the
arrival of the cinema constituted a new threat to the theatre since it quickly
became the main way of entertainment of the masses. The cinema was a
powerful competitor as it is today due to the ability to offer sensation,
spectacle on a scale impossible in the theatre, and the novelty of a new art
form.
Other hopeful aspects of dramatic activity are found under the growth of
the amateur dramatic movement regarding the British Drama League (1919)
and the Scottish Community Drama Association, both created to stimulate
drama. Yet, it must be born in mind that and this growth of repertory in
England and Ireland (1890-1918) was promoted by the arduous struggle to
create an audience for the new drama (troops). This led to seek additional
support in the provinces, and thus came into being the repertory
1936).
3
A season of Shaw repertory was given in 1904 at the Court Theatre under
the Vedrenne-Barker management, and in 1907 Miss A.E.F. Horniman (1860-
1937) abandoned her active interest in the Abbey
theatre, Yeats and Synge looked on the drama as a thing of the emotions,
and, reacting against realism, sought their themes among the legends,
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The decline of realism takes place after the 1920s, that is, after realism and
naturalism had dominated the work of most English dramatists. Yet, the
movement from realism is the keynote of the inter-War period and is
namely reflected in the greatest new inter- War dramatist, O’Casey, though
he bases his plays on a truthful picture of Dublin slum life, and has the ability
to transform his works into real poetry, where the new literary trends are
sentimentalism and the concern with the after-life.
Similarly, the popularity of the history play was only second to that of
comely. Yet, the vogue of this genre in modern times began witht he work of
John Drinkwater (1882-
1937), who was one of the founders of the Birmingham Repertory Company,
where numerous history plays took place.
Finally, regarding prose, by the end of the period, the novel was considered
not only the premier form of entertainment but also a primary means of
analyzing and offering solutions to social and political problems, only
challenged by the revival of drama towards the last two decades. This king
style, the novel, is presented with a political, philosophical or social overtone
since was the ideal form to describe contemporary life and to entertain the
middle class.
Yet, the twentieth century witnesses the development of the novel into new
revolutionary techniques as well as the genres of poetry and drama. Thus,
we shall examine the novel in relation to, for instance, the new approach as
an interpreter of life, experiments in the evolution of a new technique, the
influence of pshychology, the lack of popularity of the new novelists, writers
in the established tradition, war books, satire, escapist novels, the
autobiographical- novel-sketch comedies, and the growth of the American
novel under the figures of the lost generation.
and finally, those who focused attention on the impact of life on the
individual consciousness and on characters rather than action.
Yet, the most representative technique of this period is drawn from the
influence of pshychology so as to present the mind of the characters: the
stream of consciousness, the use of the interior monologue, the detailed
tracing of the association of ideas, and an allusive style. The rapid
development of the science of psychology did much to deepen and enrich
the study of human character in the early years, but its full impact came
with the works of Sigmund Freud about the study of personality. This opened
the way to the exploration of the vast fields of the subconscious and the
unconscious so as to dwell the mind of characters, which meant a
breakdown of Victorian moral attitudes.
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writers in the Established tradition were inevitably more popular since they
wrote after the manner of an earlier generation. Among these writers we find
Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), William Somerset Maugham (1874- 1965), John
Boynton Priestley (1894-), Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972), Francis Brett
Young (1884- 1954), and Robert Graves (1895-), among others.
Satire was also common as a form of fiction. Satirist writers are Rose
Macaulay (1881-
Among the most representative figures are John Clifford Mortimer (1923-
2001), who applied media methods to his writings in Dock Brief (1957) -
developed from a TV script-; Harold Pinter’s demostration of how plays for
radio and television can be adapted to suit the stage, and that the so-
called legitimate drama can gain much from the techniques necessitated
by other media; and the best example for students, J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels
which have been recently taken into the big screen by Hollywood’s
superproduction The Lord of the Rings. Other writers are Dylan Thomas
(1914- 1955) in poetry; Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) and Samuel Becket (1906-
1989) in drama; and William Golding (1911-1993) and Graham Greene
(1904-), as representing the evil of socie ty and man’s most primitive insticts,
and the imaginative exploration of characters, respectively. Also, George
Orwell (1903-1950) is worth mentioning as the typical product of the inter-
war and WWII years; and J.R.R. Tolkien, as the most representative figure of
the XXIst century with his science fiction novels.
Yet, he also states (1995:13) that the illusion of the magic lantern, the
ancestor of the movie camera and the projector, had already first been
observed by the Ancient Egyptians, who believed “that the eye retained an
image of an object for a fleeting moment after it had been removed from
sight (in fact we now know that it is the brain and not the eye that has this
ability).”
As Flatt (1992:6) states, “shadow shows like these are as old as fire itself. But
primitive shadow theatre eventually became the life-like movies that we all
enjoy today. A discovery by Chinese wise men 1,000 years ago marked the
first step. They noticed that a hole in a window blind projected an upside-
down picture of the scene outside. Five centuries later, Italian Girolamo
Cardano (1501-1576) fixed a lens into the hole which made the pictures
clearer.”
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“In the 1780s a Scottish showman, Robert Barker, devised another form of
visual entertainment called the Panorama. This used ingenious lighting to
animate vast paintings depicting dramatic battles or busy street scenes. At
the same time, the artist Philippe de Loutherbourg introduced his
Eidophusikon, a ‘theatre of effects’ which used imaginative lighting to make
pictures appear three-dimensional.” Yet, “the most famous lanternist was
Étienne Robert (known as Robertson), whose Phantasmagoria (1798) was
the forerunner of the horror film. Staged in a theatre eerily decorated like a
ruined chapel, this terrifying show used a moving lantern to make
supernatural images appear and vanish in the smoke-filled air.”
Yet, it was some years before (in 1765) that a Frenchman, Chevalier d’Arcy,
whirled a hot coal on the end of a rope and suggested that the glowing coal
made a bright circle in the dark because its image persists (remains visible)
for about one tenth of a second. But his work went unnoticed until the 1820s,
when people used his discovery to make toys and other entertainments
(Platt, 1992).
Then, “an Austrian baron, Franz von Uchatius, was the first to project moving
pictures in 1853. However, his Projecting Phenakistoscope produced blurred
images. The problem was solved by L.S. Beale, who devised a six-frame slide
called a Choreutoscope. This slide briefly held each picture before the
projecting lens and the used a shutter to block the light until a system of
gears slid the next image into place.”
Later on, an odd scene made history in 1878, for the racehorse, Occident,
was the first moving subject to be captured in a photograph sequence.
Imagine the scene (Platt, 1992:10).:
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1891. Edison hoped that a picture machine would have the same
commercial success as the light bulb and the Phonograph which had earlier
been developed by his laboratories. Using a camera, which he called the
Kinetograph, Dickson shot one of the earliest motion pictures of a man
raising his hat and bowing. Two years later he completed the Kinetoscope, a
viewer that employed a stop-start motion to wind films past a peephole
situated in its lid.”
“In order to satisfy the demand for moving picturs featuring vaudeville (or
music -hall) stars, comedians and boxers, Edison built the world’s first film
studio. This was called the Black Maria, becuase it looked like an American
police wagon of the period Inside this cramped room Dickson
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police wagon of the period. Inside this cramped room Dickson
photographed such influential early films as Fred Ott’s Sneeze and The Rice-
Irwin Kiss. Convinced that moving pictures would be merely a passing
novelty, Edison decided to ignore projection and make a quick profit from
his Kinetoscopes.” Yet, “others recognized this and continued working
towards creating a projecting machine” (Parkinson, 1995:17).
Among those who continued working on the projecting machine were “Louis
and Augute
1895. Later that spring, Major Woodville Latham showed a boxing film to a
paying crowd on Broadway in New York. In August, Birt Acres and R.W. Paul
projected several shorts with the Kineopticon in London. The following month
Americans Thomas Armat and Francis Jenkins presented their Phantascope
in Atlanta. Finally, just weeks before the Lumières’s Grand Café première,
Max and Emil Skladanowsky exhibited their Bioscope in Berlin” (Parkinson,
1995:17).
So, the film era has already started and as Platt (1992:18) states, “the
invention of moving pictures was such a sensation that audiences paid just
to see people walking or dancing on screen. When the novelty wore off, New
York and Philadelphia film companies built roof-top studios and turned out
short, cheap, dramas: fims that told stories, like stage plays. But for good
pictures, they needed sunshine, and they soon became tired of waiting for
the clouds over the East Coast to clear. In 1910, many film makers headed
west for California.”
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“There, close to Los Angeles, they found a sleepy town called Hollywood.
Land was cheap, wages were low, the sun shone constantly, and there was
an incredible variety of background landscapes for their movies, just a short
distance away. Hollywood grew quickly –from 5,000 people in 1910 to 1910 to
35,000 less than a decade later. The film people creates studios, the studios
created movie stars, the stars built mansions, and soon the very name
“Hollywood” began to mean “Movies”. Since then cinema is characterised by
three main stages: the Silent Film Era, the Golden Age which coincided with
the arrival of sound to the screen, and finally, the Second Golden Era, which
is commonly known because of the ‘movie brats’.
Though Hollywood was the centre of world movie -making for most of the
silent era, many other countries had thriving film industries. In Europe,
Germany actually produced more feature films than the USA in 1913. In 1926,
German director Fritz Lang produced his silent masterpiece
Metropolis, a chilling vision of the future; British studios flourished in the 1920s
and 1930s. Britain’s best-known studio, Rank, was founded in the 1930s by
flourmilling tycoon J. Arthur (later lord) Rank, in order to make religious films;
in Italy, the Cinecittà was created, but became less important as Hollywood
grew; and in France, Leon Gaumont founded the British Gaumont studios in
Shepherd’s Bush, west London.
In the States, during the first decade of the twentieth century, Hollywood
began to replace New York as the centre of filmmaking and several
companies were created, thus Paramount Company by the mogul Adolph
Zukor; Metro Goldwyn Mayer, whose motto was “more stars than there are in
the heavens”; Warner Brothers, which dismissed bad reviews with the words
“Today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s toilet paper”; and later on in 1935, the
famous studio 20th Century Fox, which pioneered both sound and colour.
mountains, nearby urban locations); and, crucially, the area was also a
source of far cheaper labour than could be found in New York” (Shiach,
1995:12).
Actually, the first motion picture theatre, the Electric, was opened in 1902 in
Los Angeles. “Early cinemas were called ‘nickelodeons’ because you paid a
nickel (five cents) to see the show. By 1907 there were approximately 3000
such nickelodeons across America. The cinema was on its way to becoming
big business” (Shiach, 1993:10). In 1903 the Edison factory produced the first
true narrative film, The Great Train Robbery, and a few years later a young
actor, on replacing a sick director, produced The Adventures of Dolly , which
was to launch him as a great film-maker, David Wark Griffith.
In 1907 he was offered the chance to appear in Edwin Porter’s Rescued from
an Eagle ’s Nest, and although he originally disliked cinema, he directed 61
short films within a year Grifith and was regarded as one of America’s most
promising film- makers. In 1912 he watched the audience’s reaction to the
French film Queen Elizabeth , which ran for about 50 minutes, and later the
Italian epic Quo Vadis?, which lasted for almost two hours. Then, though by
the end of
1913 he had completed over 450 motion pictures and was hailed as the
‘Shakespeare of the screen’, he began to work on his first feature film, The
Birth of a Nation. Next year, the Paramount Pictures was formed to release
the pictures of the Famous Players Company and the World War First started
(1914-1918).
In 1915 the most famous silent movie of all, The Birth of Nation, was released
and everything Griffith had learned about film- making he used on this
three-hour epic. Tracing the relations between two families during the
American Civil War and the period of reconstruction that followed, this film
was easily the most ambitious film so far attempted in America: spectacular
battle sequences, long shots juxtaposed, and specially coloured or tinted
film stock to heighten their mood. The film was a success and it earned the
cinema a new social and intellectual respectability as audiences of all
classes flocked to see it. However, it was also seen as an openly racist
depiction since the Ku Klux Klan were represented heroically as the
defenders of civilised values and, as a result, it was banned in many
American cities
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American cities.
The WWI marked a dramatic change in America at three main levels. First, at
social level the younger generation were keen to abandon many of the
moral and cultural attitudes that had existed before the war since the motor
car, the radio, the tabloid press and a new style of music called jazz became
part of daily life. This social revolution was seen as a more relaxed approach
to sex and morality which Hollywood was quick to exploit. Secondly, at
industrial and economic level since many countries (film industries of the
Soviet Union, Germany, France and Scandinavia) were forced to stop
making pictures between 1914 and 1918; and finally, at popularity level, since
thanks to it, the American film industry had effectively establish itself as the
dominant cinema.
Hollywood studios had then the power to impose their products wherever
films were shown commercially since they created an aura of glamour and
excitement round movies, where stars were the main protagonists. In the
first films, the actors playing leading roles earned low salaries and were
anonymous. The ‘star system’ began when highly paid and pampered stage
actors began to appear in films. The lives of famous film people appeared to
be idyllic because of huge houses, ranging from French chateaux to Spanish
haciendas, swimming pools, servants, cars, and parties. Hence their
glamorous life-styles gave fans a fantasy of escaping their own humdrum
lives despite that fact that, in real life, many stars came from humble
homes.
Among the most famous film stars then we include the Polish Pola Negri
(1894- 1987), who ended her career when sound arrived to the scene; the
so-called Valentino, actually Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), who was the
idol of millions of women playing an arab lover in films such as The Sheik
(1921); the beautiful Gloria Swanson (1897-1983) who began as an extra;
Bebe Daniels (1901- 1971), who first appeared on screen at the age of seven;
and Theda Bara (1890-1955), famed fo her sexy roles as eastern princesses,
among others.
Following Shiach (1993:15), “by the twenties movies were very big business
indeed. The average movie was unsophisticated and direct in its appeal.
Film makers went after family audiences because that was where the
money was so escapism was the order of the day Movies offered an
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money was, so escapism was the order of the day. Movies offered an
escape frome everyday problems” and hence the Hollywood studios were
called the Dream Factories. They wanted to produce the highest quality
entertainment, but they were not keen to risk making films that might not
earn any money. This is the moment in which literature comes into force
since to minimize such risks, “they began to concentrate on groups of films
called genres. These reused the most popular plots, characters, locations
and themes to guarantee box-office success” (Parkinson, 1995:24).
Parkinson added that “among the most popular genres were crime, horror,
comedy, melodrama, action adventure and the Western” (the development
of each of these genres from the silent era to the present day is covered in
next section on subjects and stories). “The most important pictures were
backed by cleverly targeted advertising and mass publicity campaigns,
which focused on film stars who, by the 1920s, had become the cornerstone
of the entire Hollywood system.” At the same time, the studios tried to avoid
the examination of films by the authorities and imposed their own strict
moral code on both their pictures and their employees.
As seen, “silent screen stars, like modern mime artists, became expert at
expressing themselves without words. Instead, they communicated with
their faces and hands, exaggerating every gesture. Then suddenly, in 1927,
the silent screen spoke. Film makers had found a practical way to record
sounds as well as pictures” (Platt, 1992:22) and interest in silent cinema
disappeared virtually overnight. Follow ing Parkinson (1995:27), “the sudden
decline of silent film- making has no parallel in any other art form. The
public never abandoned classical music, but the idols of the silent era
almost are forgotten.” He also adds that by 1927 “as Hollywood dominated
international cinema, silent production virtually ceased in the western world
within three years. An age of bold artistic experiment was over.”
his studio made Don Juan , which was a silent costume drama that included
sound effects and orchestral music on a sound-on-disc system called
Vitaphone.” The real proof that “the silent era was over finally came in
October 1927 with the release of The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.”
Also, “colour, like sound, did not immediately become an essential part of
international film- making, and many films continued to be made in black-
and-white, or monochrome up to the
1970s. One reason for this was that most directors preferred the more subtle
and atmospheric images they could achieve with monochrome” (Parkinson,
1995:38). The technicolor method (introduced by Herbert T. Kalmus in 1917)
was used on many silent classics, including The Black Pirate (1926), Disney’s
cartoon Flowers and Trees (1932), The Wizard of Oz and (1930s) Margaret
Michell’s Gone With the Wind (1940s). However, technicolor’s first real test
came in
1930s Hollywood’s most serious competition came from its biggest customer
–Britain. But most British movies were cheaply and quickly made, produced
only to fulfil the terms of the Quota Act, which stated that 20 per cent of all
British screen time had to be filled with British pictures.” One of the most
important directors of the time was Alfred Hitchcock, who began his career
directing silent thrillers like The Lodger (1926).
Hitchcock made his name with the first British Talkie, Blackmail (1929), which
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explored his favourite theme, fear in everyday life. “He was deeply influenced
by German Expressionism and planned each scene with great precision so
that the décor, props, performers and camera angles, as well as the music
and sound effects, all added to the tension of the plot” (1995: 45). “He so
effortlessly blended thrills, comedy and romance in the pictures like The 39
Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) that by the time he moved to
Hollywood he was known as the
‘Master of Suspense’. His first American film was the tense melodrama
Rebecca, which won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1940.”
“During World War II (1939- 1945) films had to provide both information and
entertainment. British pictures like Went the Day Well? were almost as
realistic as documentaries. Among the best Hollywood war films were
Lifeboat (1944), Alfred Hitchcock’s study of the Nazi menace, and Tay
Garnett’s Bataan (1943), which depicted the harsh realities of the conflict in
the Pacific.” Actually, “cinema was transformed in the period after World War
II. A growing
number of directors began to make films showing the world around them in
a more realistic way” in the same way literature did within the influential
style known as neo-realism or new realism in the 1940s.
New realities were also to be shown by Britain, which also made highly
polished pictures during this period. Following Parkinson (1995:51), they were
mainly costume melodramas, heroic war films and pictures known as
‘Ealing comedies’ that gently poked fun at the British character. But
producers like Alexander Korda and J. Arthur Rank were not content with
only pleasing British audiences. They also wanted to succeed in America.
They co-produced films like Carol Reed’s thriller The Third Man (1949) with
Hollywood money and stars like Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton. For other
films they drew on Britain’s colourful history and proud literary heritage.” For
instance, “David Lean’s version of Dicken’s Great Expectations (1946) and
Laurence Olivier’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1948) were much
admired. But British cinema did not have enough money to challenge
Hollywood seriously, even though Hollywood was itself deep in a crisis that
threatened its very survival.”
I th St t A i di t h d th i bj t i h th
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In the States, American directors approached their subjects in much the
same way as the Italian neo-realists had done in order to increase the
realism of their films. “They abandoned artificial studio sets and shot the
action to location, often casting less well- known performers in the leading
roles rather than big stars. However, even the problem pictures that were
most critical of society usually concluded that things would improve if
everyone lived according to traditional American values. This idealism was
totally absent from a brutal, pessimistic kind of feature film known as film
noir” (1995:53). Hence we have again a connection to literature since the
most famous films of this type are John Huston’s version of Dashiell
Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) in 1941; and Edward Dmytryks’s version
of Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely (1940) in
1945.
However, right-wing politicians did not agree with this type of ‘problem
pictures’ and, as a result, “in September 1947 a government body called the
House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) came to Hollywood to
investigate ‘Communism in motion pictures’. Consequently, since ten
screenwriters and directors refused to cooperate, they were jailed. Several
leading film stars, including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Gene Kelly,
campaigned for the release of the ‘Hollywood Ten’. Then, the studios
threatened to put communists and their supporters on a ‘blacklist’ and they
decided to back down. The blacklist resulted in the ruin of many talented
individuals, and the ‘witch-hunt’ created deep divisions within Hollywood.
“In the late 1950s a new technique known as ‘method acting’ became
popular with young actors like Marlon Brando James Dean and Paul
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popular with young actors like Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul
Newman. They believed that their performances would be more lifelike if
they studied the background to their characters for many months before
filming started. The result was a depth and realism that had not been seen
on screen before” (1995:57). A similar literary technique was the study of
personality by psychological techniques drawn from Freud (stream of
consciousness, depiction of thoughts). The end of the era was close and
over the next 30 years the boldest and most imaginative pictures were to be
made in Europe.
The 1960s was a decade of enormous change. Exciting new attitudes to sex,
fashion and politics were reflected in films, books, music and art. It was a
time when film-makers everywhere began to reject the basic storytelling
methods that had been used for over half a century. Contemporary
techniques taken from literary genres or advertis ing such as the flashback
or the new wave
1950s and 1960s since it is influenced by the social background of the time:
the ‘kitchen sink’ stage plays are usually set in the industrial north and deal
with the everyday lives of ‘angry young men’ who are dissatisfied with their
place in society to add realism.
Science fiction and “escapist adventures offer more leading roles to actors
than to actresses. Among the stars to have emerged as a result are action-
men like Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison
Ford and Mel Gibson. There are also many respected characters actors
including Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson, Tom
Hanks, Kevin Costner and Tom Cruise. Only Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone and
Demi Moore have equal box- office appeal. But Hollywood can call on many
fine actresses, including Jodie Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meryl Streep, Jessica
Lange, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.”
It must be borne in mind that “American self-confidence was very low in the
mid-1970s, following its defeat in the Vietnam War and the resignation of
President Nixon after the Watergate bugging scandal. America’s gloom was
reflected in a number of powerful films. A key director in this period was
Robert Altman. He re-worked several film genres, such as the war movie
(M*A*S*H, 1970), the Western (McCabe and Mrs Miller, 1971), the detective
thriller (The Long Goodbye, 1973) and the musical (Nashville , 1975) to
challenge the glamorous image of America usually presented by Hollywood.
He even poked fun at the movie business itself in The Player (1992).”
Up to now we have seen how “during the first century of its existence the
cinema has usually managed to find imaginative ways of using the latest
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cinema has usually managed to find imaginative ways of using the latest
technology. Sound, colour and widescreen all eventually became essential
elements in film-making, after long periods of trial and error. Perhaps the
same will be said one day for 3D, interactive systems such as CD-i and
virtual reality. Digital video (DV) now makes it possible to store moving
images on a compact disc. When it is inserted, the viewer can influence a
film’s plot and ending simply by using a joypad.
Computer imaging will soon make it possible for viewers not only to alter the
storyline of popular pictures, but also to star in them themselves! After a
century of cinema projection, the
‘electronic cinema’ may take us through the next 100 years. Whatever
happens, it is clear that the moving image will continue to excite, entertain
and enthrall audiences of all ages and tastes.”
As mentioned above, one of the main sources from which cinema receives
most ideas and plots is literature. Actually, during the silent film era,
Hollywood studios wanted to attract the widest audiences, so they began to
make films within certain subject areas, called literary genres, which gave
audiences familiar plots, characters and settings. The different cinematic
genres, as for literary ones, offer then exciting adventure, hilarious comedy,
unbearable suspense, heart- warming romance and much more.
Audiences would know what to expect and then, they would have two sets of
expectations at least, of the genre and the star. Genres made sense
economically because a studio could re-use the same sets, locations,
actors, directors, costumes and even plots from literary works to churn out
more westerns, musicals, comedies or war movies which bred a sense of
familiarity in the mass audience. It must be borne in mind that genres and
stars were a means of product differentiation and a way of persuading the
customer to come back for more. Moreover, the only demand made on the
audience was to sit back and enjoy itself.
So, we shall approach the literary adaptations in terms of (1) subjects and
stories, regarding (a) the Western, (b) the musical, (c) crime stories
regarding gangsters and film noir, (d) adventure, (e) comedies, (f) epics, (g)
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horror, (h) scie nce fiction, (i) love stories, and (j) war; and also, in terms of
(2) main techniques and (3) main similarities and differences.
striking out for the unknown, Man against raw Nature, the pursuit of an
independent way of life, the acquiring of land and wealth, the conquering of
hostile elements in the shape of Indians and
‘bad’ men, and building communities out of the wilderness based on simple
values, hard work and Godliness.”
Actually, there are several literary adaptations taken from English and
American literature at that time. John Ford, notable for the beauty of his
composition and his insights into the hardships of frontier life, produced
several popular and intelligent Westerns, which were turned into art forms.
He made hugely influential films in a range of other genres, winning Best
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Direction Oscars for The Informer (1935), How Green Was My Valley (1941)
and, for our purposes, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940),
originally written in 1939; and The Quiet Man (1952). More recently, the
pioneering era when America was a British colony was shown in the
Hollywood’s cinematic adaptation from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last
of the Mohicans, re-made in 1992.
“The musical is another genre that Hollywood took over and made its own.
When sound came to Hollywood, the studios poured out film after film with
people singing and dancing rather inexpertly, and audiences seemed to
love these happy films” (Shiach, 1993:209). However, soon the public got
tired of the new phenomenon, the movie musical probably due to the onset
of the Depression or the surfeit of musicals as well as the studio system
since they were expensive to make and required a large body of permanent
employees to produce. Among the most famous Broadway blockbusters
taken from literary works in this genre was My Fair Lady, produced in
1964.
The literary genre of crime fiction has probably been the most adapted by
cinema. Both gangster movies and film noir take characters, plot and
scenery from English literature. According to Parkinson (1995:94), “crime was
a popular subject in the silent film era. The earliest screen crooks were
usually burglars or melodramatic villains and swindlers. The crime film
presents a very sinister picture of modern city life. Set on crowded,
unwelcoming streets, the action is often fast and the talk is always tough.
Gangsters, bank robbers and murderers seem to lurk on every corner, while
cops, private eyes and special agents search for clues to solve baff ling
mysteries.” We shall concentrate in this section on gangsters and sleuths
within crime, and private eyes within film noir.
On the one hand, “the gangster film was transformed by the coming of
sound. The rattle of machine-gun fire, the screams of onlookers and the
screeching tyres of getaway cars all added to the excitement and realism of
these tough-talking pictures The hoodlums in the films in the classic
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these tough talking pictures. The hoodlums in the films in the classic
gangster era (1930- 1933) were often based on real gangsters who operated
in American cities like Chicago. Many of the stories in these features were
taken directly from true crime reports splashed across the daily
newspapers” (Parkinson, 1995:94).
Yet, most films were based on amateur detectives or ‘sleuths’ taken from
literature, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. These stories,
set amid the bustling, foggy streets of Victorian London, made Hollywood
stars like Basil Rathbone (as Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (as his faithful
assistant) starred in fourteen adventures together, many of whic h, like
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), were set during World War II.
“In the 1930s and 1940s several other sleuths found their way on to the
screen from the pages of popular fiction. The most sophisticated films of this
type were the Thin Man series, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick
and Nora Charles. The British author Agatha Christie’s best-known
character, the Belgian detective Hercules Poirot, has featured in a number of
all-star
Regarding the film noir, the most famous Hollywood private eyes were set
within the gloomy and threatening atmosphere of WWII. They first appeared
“in the pages of hard-edged thrillers by American writers like Dashiell
Hammett and Raymond Chandler. World-weary and charming, the private
eye solved baffling mysteries in which there were as many murders as there
were twists in the plot” (1995:96). Actually, Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon
(1930)
Humphrey Bogart played Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, and went on to
star as the equally tough Philip Marlowe in Chandler’s The Big Sleep in 1946,
originally written in 1939. “Several other actors have also played the part of
Marlowe, including Dick Powell in Farewell, My Lovely (1944) and Elliot Gould
in The Long Goodbye (1973). But the role is usually associated with Bogart.
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Other private eyes in the same cynical mould include Mike Hammer in the
brutal Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and J.J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson in
Chinatown (1974) and The Two Jakes (1990). Other literary adaptations
include Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock (1938), taken to the widescreen in
1948; Hammett’s The Thin Man (1934), filmed in 1934; and Alfred Hitchcock’s
Vertigo and Psycho (a thriller) filmed in 1958 and 1960, respectively.
2.3.1.4. Adventure.
2.3.1.5. Comedies.
“Comedy is the oldest form of film fiction. The very first cinema show given
by the Lumière brothers in 1895 included a comic short film – L’Arroseur
arrosé (The Sprinkler Sprinkled)” (Parkinson, 1995:80). The most important
comedy actors were Charles Chaplin in the early years of cinema, Buster
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Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and more recently, comedy
actors such Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Jim Carrey. It is worth
mentioning that comedy has taken little from literature and this
unpredictability makes comedy the most difficult film style to do
consistently well.
2.3.1.6. Epics.
“The cinema has always tried to provide spectacle for mass audiences. The
technological and material resources of cinema can recreate any period of
history, any imaginary world, any vision of writers and directors. Movies have
tried ever since they became a mass entertainment to privde spectacles
that no other art or entertainment medium can rival in their size, opulence
and authenticity” (Shiach, 1993:215).
“Birth of a Nation was the cinema’s first great spectacle and from then on
many producers and directors have attempted to impress us with the
grandness of their designs, the extravagance of their concepts, their
devotion to reproducing a historical period, and to rewriting history itself.
Among those works worth mentioning, which have been adapted from
historical literature, we include: Birth of a Nation (1915), The Private Life of
Henry VIII (1933), the imperial adventures of The Four Feathers (1939),
Braveheart (1995), Rob Roy (1995), and the recent Troia (2004), among
others.
2.3.1.7. Horror.
Actually, Parkinson (1995:100) says that “the pioneer of screen horror was
Étienne Robertson, whose Phantasmagoria (1798) terrified audiences in Paris
during the French revolution.”
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which also first appeared at the end of the 18th century. These novels were
set in ruined castles and gloomy monasteries built in the Gothic style of
architecture.”
“Science-fiction films have been made since the early 20th century. Many of
the first pictures were set in the future or on distant planets, and included
experiments with camera tricks, special effects, costumes and make-up. It is
thanks to science fiction that many devices and processes were invented
that have since become common in films of all kinds.” Actually, “it was not
until the Cold War era of teh 1950s, when invasion and nuclear holocaust
seemed very real threats, that more serious themes were tackled. Even then,
sci-fi films did not have big budgets or big stars, so the special effects –and
the acting- were usually both second rate.”
At the beginning, the main inspiration was taken from Julius Verne’s
adventures to the moon, into Earth or in the sea, such as Journey to the
Center of the Earth (1959). Time travel is as old as cinema itself and hence,
we get adaptations from H.G. Well’s landmark sci-fi novel, The Time Machine
(1985), filmed in 1960, which was published just months before the first
cinema show in 1895. Later on, from the comic trip adventures of
superheroes like Flash Gordon and from Superman.
The outer space was a common theme in the 1950s with the new outer
space era and extraterrestrial life, shown in Outer Space (1959), Stanley
Kuberick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977),
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ube c s : Space Odyssey ( 968), Geo ge ucas s S a Wa s ( 9 ),
and more recently, Irvin Kershner’s The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Richard
Marquand’s The Return of the Jedi (1983), Steven Spielberg’s E.T.-The
Extraterrestrial (1982). More recently, archaelogical discoveries, the
successful Jurassic Park (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg, was based on
the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton.
“By ‘love stories’ or ‘romantic movies’, one usually means movies where the
main interest is in the romantic involvement of the two leads. Some people,
on that basis, would argue that Gone With the Wind is a love story about
Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler rather than a civil war epic. Similarly,
Casablanca is about the tragic love between Bogart and Bergman rather
than a thriller involving the Nazis, Claude Rains as a Vichy policeman and
the Resistance” (Shiach,
1993:222). Similarly, who remembers very much about the Spanish Civil War
from
“The British have made their share of romantic movies, but unitl the sixties
they were usually of the tight- lipped, blouse-buttoned variety.” For instance,
Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy, is a hugely romantic movie
dedicated to the concept of a love that transcends all was adapted by
George Steven’s film version A Place in the Sun (1952), featured by
Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, the screen romance had onlyl
one golden rule: that true love should never run smoothly. Only when lovers
had overcome all obstacles in the ir path could they be united in a final kiss.
Also, the film Rebecca, filmed by Hitchcock in 1940, based on the novel of
Daphne Du Maurier’s popular novel Rebecca.
2.3.1.10. War.
As mentioned above, from its birth cinema has adapted literary novels to
assure success, and similarly, it has also adapted the main techniques used
in the literary scene. So, in the twentieth century literature witnesses the
development of new revolutionary techniques in which the new approach
was a new way to interprete life, scientific and technological experiments,
and the influence of pshychology. So, we may appreciate certain
techniques, such as flashback in which the story does not follow a
chronological order but this is altered so as to attract the viewer’s attention;
the psychological influence of Freud’s theories on the human mind, reflected
in the stream of consciousness; and also the influential effects of literary
streams such as realism, modernism, experimentalism.
As mentioned above film makers went after family audiences because that
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As mentioned above, film makers went after family audiences because that
was where the money was, and they wanted to produce the highest quality
entertainment, but they were not keen to risk making films that might not
earn any money. So, since they needed familiar issues and stories to deal
with, they approached literature to minimize such risks. Yet, since they were
to benefit each other though, they present similarities and differences.
Among similiarities, we mention the fact that they both are regarded as
genres, for instance, cinematic and literary genres, and as such, they deal
with the same subjects and stories, and common elements: plots,
characters, locations and techniques.
Among the main differences we highlight the fact that since they are
different languages, they operate on different levels regarding time, content,
and treatment. While watching a film takes between one hour and three
hours, we have no limits to read a book (one day, two weeks, a year), that is,
in cinema the spectator cannot make his choice of the speed in passing
thorugh the events and situations whereas in literature the reader makes his
own choice; also, imagination does not work in the same way at the level of
visualizing images, since when reading a book we mentally create our own
image about characters and scenery whereas at the cinema it is the
director choice which determines the image (selection of characters and
scenery); and finally, the difficulty of adapting literary novels since the
director may change the writer’s point of view by using a free adaptation.
Literature, and therefore, literary language is one of the most salient aspects
of educational activity, and in this unit we have linked its relevance to
cinema. In classrooms all kinds of literary language (poetry, drama, prose –
novel, short story, detective fiction, minor fiction-, periodicals) either spoken
or written, is going on for most of the time. Yet, handling literary productions
in the past makes relevant the analysis of literature in the twentieth and
twenty-first century in this unit, specially when we find literary adaptations
to the cinema. Yet, what do students know about the relationship of cinema
and literature throughtout history?
Hence it makes sense to examine the main literary adaptations through the
subjects students feel most attracted, such as detective and love stories, or
science fiction, such as Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) by John
Huston’s adaptation in 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade;
Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1946), directed by Howard Hawks, and
starring
Bogart & Bacall; Hitchcock’s Psycho; or Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and
Chandler’s private detective Philip Marlowe, familiar to students through
television.
In short, the knowledge about the history of literature and cineman should
become part of every literary student’s basic competence (B.O.E., 2004)
since there are hidden influences at work beneath the textual surface: these
may be sociocultural, inter and intratextual. The literary student has to
discover these, and wherever necessary apply them in further examination.
The main aims that our currently educational system focuses on are mostly
sociocultural, to facilitate the study of cultural themes, as our students must
be aware of their current social reality within the international scene.
4. CONCLUSION.
The present unit, Unit 61 has provided so far a useful introduction to the
impact of cinema on the diffusion of literary works in the English language .
In doing so, we have offered an overview of the origins of literature and
cinema from the birth of cinema up to the present day regarding the three
main stages in film era, that is, the Silent Era, in which there was nor sound or
colour; the Golden Age, in which sound arrived to the screen, and finally, the
Second Golden Age, which coincided with a new generation of film-makers,
nicknamed the ‘movie brats’.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Byron, T.J. 1990. Murder Will Out, The Detective Fiction. Oxford University Press.
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Framework of reference.
Fiedler, Leslie. 1960. Love and Death in the American Novel. New York:
Criterion Books.
May 2001. Speech delivered at the opening of the meeting of the Jury (15
May 2001)
Keating, H.R.F. 1994. Writing Crime Fiction. A & C Black Ltd., London.
University Press.
Ousby, Ian. 1997. The Crime and Mystery Book. A Reader’s Companion.
London. Palmer, R. 1980. Historia Contemporánea, Akal ed., Madrid.
Parkinson, David. 1995. The Young Oxford Book of Cinema . Oxford University
Press.
van Ek, J.A., and J.L.M. Trim, 2001. Vantage. Council of Europe. Cambridge
University Press.
Ward & Trent, et al. 2000. The Cambridge History of English and American
Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com.
Other sources:
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13/11/2020 Topic 61 – The influence of cinema in the spread of literary production in english language - Oposinet
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century. 1999. Detroit, St. James.
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