The Classic-Novel Adaptation in 2009
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Durham E-Theses The Classic-Novel Adaptation from 1995 to 2009 WHITE, REBECCA,ARWEN How to cite: WHITE, REBECCA,ARWEN (2010) The Classic-Novel Adaptation from 1995 to 2009, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/443/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk The Classic-Novel Adaptation from 1995 to 2009 Rebecca Arwen White Abstract This thesis explores the dynamic relationship between the nineteenth-century novel and the screen, interrogating evolving trends in film and television adaptation from the mid-1990s to 2009. In contrast to many other studies in this field, such productions are understood as both adaptations and „costume dramas‟, whilst the often neglected televisual context is highlighted alongside the paratexts which shape and surround adaptations. At the same time, the enduring (yet often dismissed) notion of „fidelity‟ is recognised and developed, as expectations of faithfulness extend beyond the literary text to privilege the legacies of prior adaptations. As this thesis will show, classic-novel adaptations are increasingly framed by change and tension, as movements towards „contemporising‟ representations of the past, and reinvigorating costume drama, have been shadowed by a growing unease with the stylistic innovation and ubiquity of the genre. An introductory chapter outlines theoretical approaches towards, and critical studies of, adaptation and costume drama, contextualising this thesis whilst defining new directions for study. Chapter one focuses upon Jane Austen, re-exploring the significance of Andrew Davies‟s Pride and Prejudice (1995) and examining „Austenmania‟s‟ tense pull between tradition and innovation. Chapter two considers how conflicting perceptions of what constitutes „Gaskellian‟ become interlinked with the struggle to characterise contemporary period adaptation. Chapter three explores the evolving interrelationship between the Brontës, the „Brontë Myth‟ and the screen, whilst chapter four readdresses the long history of adapting Dickens, the „Dickensian‟ film redefined by Davies‟s „soap-like‟ treatment of Bleak House (2005). A concluding chapter examines classic-novel adaptation in 2009, returning to Austen as emblematic of many of the issues confronting the genre, and offering some thoughts about its immediate future. Above all, this study interrogates the ever-shifting relationship between text and screen, enabling refreshing interpretations of both novel and adaptation. The Classic-Novel Adaptation from 1995 to 2009 Rebecca Arwen White A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies University of Durham 2010 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter One: ‘A faithful performance’? The ‘Austen Phenomenon’, from Andrew Davies’s Pride and Prejudice (1995) to Sense and Sensibility (2008) ........................................ 29 Pride and Prejudice (1995) ...................................................................................................... 41 Pride and Prejudice (2005) ...................................................................................................... 50 Mansfield Park (1999) .............................................................................................................. 56 Becoming Jane (2007) .............................................................................................................. 64 Sense and Sensibility (2008) ..................................................................................................... 69 Chapter Two: ‘How am I to reconcile all these warring members?’ Elizabeth Gaskell on Screen ........................................................................................................................................... 79 Wives and Daughters (1999) .................................................................................................... 83 North and South (2004) ............................................................................................................ 98 Cranford (2007) ..................................................................................................................... 118 Chapter Three: ‘To be for ever known’: The Brontës, the Brontë Myth and Screen Adaptation ................................................................................................................................. 141 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996)......................................................................................... 145 Jane Eyre ................................................................................................................................ 162 Wuthering Heights .................................................................................................................. 188 Chapter Four: ‘The Great Inimitable’: Dickens on Screen, from Sandy Welch’s Our Mutual Friend (1998) to Andrew Davies’s Little Dorrit (2008) ........................................................... 207 Our Mutual Friend (1998), Oliver Twist (1999) and Great Expectations (1999) .................. 214 Bleak House (2005) ................................................................................................................ 233 Oliver Twist (2007) ................................................................................................................ 248 Little Dorrit (2008) ................................................................................................................. 256 Conclusion: The Classic-Novel Adaptation in 2009 ............................................................... 273 Filmography .............................................................................................................................. 299 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 309 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author‟s prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. The following material appears in revised form in this thesis: White, Rebecca. “„Fresh Eyre‟? How Original is Sandy Welch‟s Televised Jane Eyre?” Brontë Studies 33:2 (July, 2008): 136-147. ---. “„A joke spoken in rather a sad tone‟: Cranford, Humour and Heidi Thomas‟s Television Adaptation.” The Gaskell Society Journal 22 (2008): 45- 60. ---. “„No attire had ever so well become me‟: The Significance of Costume in Franco Zeffirelli‟s Adaptation of Jane Eyre.” Jane Eyre. Ed. Frédéric Regard and Augustin Trappenard (Paris: Armand Colin, 2008). 115-126. Acknowledgements This thesis has been supervised by Dr Sarah Wootton and funded by an AHRC Doctoral Award. Introduction „“I have heard of a faithful performance”‟ exclaims Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey, his comment encapsulating Jane Austen‟s subtly ironic and self-reflexive adaptation of literary conventions; as Tilney discovers, Catherine Morland – a self-proclaimed heroine – constructs a Gothic romance out of her experiences at Northanger, which performs faithfully, re-configures and deconstructs the motifs and preoccupations of Austen‟s writing.1 The nineteenth-century novel has long been associated with the phenomenon of adaptation. Dickens‟s stories, for instance, were famously reproduced and re-explored by other writers during his own lifetime. On the one hand, the resulting proliferation of different versions of Dickens‟s novels privileges his literary creations, redirecting attention onto his texts; as Erica Sheen argues, Foucault „is right about the way the adaptive return reinforces a link between authors and works‟.2 At the same time, responses to rewritings of Dickens‟s novels indicate the complex – and frequently conflicting – interplay between literature and adaptation, as the „original‟ work is perceived as almost sacred, its „meaning‟ in need of protection against the encroachment – and yet powerful ubiquity – of reinterpretation. Such issues, however, become especially pronounced in the relation between the novel and the screen, not only in terms of semiotics but also culturally. Although Kamilla Elliott maintains that the nineteenth-century novel „in some sense became film‟, noting Sergei Eisenstein‟s proclamation that „from Dickens, from the Victorian novel, stem the first shoots of American film aesthetic‟, there has existed, as Thomas Elsaesser comments, a „war of independence‟ between English Literature and Film (and, latterly, Television) Studies.3 Fundamental to this divide is the traditional assumption that film, and, more specifically, cinema and television broadcasting, are part of popular