Wit & Visualisation
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Wit & Visualisation Visualising Jane Austen by Toril Bache-Wiig Midtskogen A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages The University of Oslo in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Cand. Philol. degree Spring Term 2007 Wit & Visualisation Visualising Jane Austen by Toril Bache-Wiig Midtskogen ii for Haakon iii Contents Preface............................................................................................................................... iv 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Austenmania.................................................................................................... 1 1.2 The Chosen Texts: Emma and Pride & Prejudice ............................................ 3 1.3 Outline of the Thesis........................................................................................ 4 2 ADAPTATION................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Film, Television and Literature......................................................................... 5 2.2 Adaptation Theory............................................................................................ 6 2.2.1 Fidelity............................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Types of Adaptations......................................................................... 9 2.2.3 Does Adaptation Affect the Book?..................................................... 10 2.3 Narrative Theory............................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Story and Discourse........................................................................... 12 2.3.2 Events and Existents......................................................................... 13 2.3.3 Author, Implied Author and Narrator.................................................. 13 2.4 Semiotics.......................................................................................................... 15 2.5 Filmic Discourse............................................................................................... 16 2.5.1 'Show, Don't Tell'............................................................................... 17 2.5.2 Natural Selection................................................................................ 19 2.5.3 Range and Depth of Story Information.............................................. 21 2.6 Other Factors of Influence................................................................................ 22 2.7 Television Adaptations..................................................................................... 23 2.8 Adapting Jane Austen...................................................................................... 24 3 IRONY............................................................................................................................. 26 3.1 The Concept of Irony........................................................................................ 26 3.2 Jane Austen and Irony..................................................................................... 33 3.3 Irony in Emma .................................................................................................. 38 3.4 Irony in Pride & Prejudice ................................................................................. 44 3.5 Irony in Film and Television.............................................................................. 46 4 ADAPTING EMMA .......................................................................................................... 51 4.1 Emma , BBC, 1972............................................................................................ 52 4.2 Emma , Miramax, 1996..................................................................................... 61 4.3 Jane Austen's Emma , Meridian Broadcasting, 1996........................................ 69 4.4 Clueless , Paramount Pictures, 1995................................................................ 79 5 ADAPTING PRIDE & PREJUDICE ................................................................................. 85 5.1 Pride & Prejudice , MGM, 1940......................................................................... 85 5.2 Pride & Prejudice, BBC, 1980.......................................................................... 86 5.3 Pride & Prejudice , BBC, 1995.......................................................................... 87 5.4 Pride & Prejudice , Universal, 2005................................................................... 88 5.5 Departures........................................................................................................ 89 5.5.1 Pride & Prejudice , Excel Entertainment Group, 2003........................ 89 5.5.2 Bride & Prejudice , Pathé Pictures, 2004............................................ 90 5.5.3 Bridget Jones's Diary , Universal, 2001.............................................. 90 6 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................ 92 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................ 95 Appendix 1: Segmentations............................................................................................... 98 Emma 1972............................................................................................................ 99 Emma 1996............................................................................................................ 104 Jane Austen's Emma 1996.................................................................................... 108 Clueless 1995........................................................................................................ 112 Appendix 2:........................................................................................................................ 116 Cast of Characters in Emma .................................................................................. 117 iv Preface Jane Austen has for me been one of those life changing literary discoveries. Having grown up in Norway I was not forced to read Jane Austen at school, but was allowed to discover her during my early days at university. Almost fifteen years later I can still remember my first reactions to reading Pride & Prejudice . The novel was tacked on to the end of the reading list for a course in the Romantic Period. Pride & Prejudice may not have enlightened me much as to the characteristics of the Romantic Period, but it certainly was a vehicle of literary enlightenment for me. It is a bit embarrassing now to recall that I think I might have managed to get through almost a quarter of the book before its true nature was revealed to me. Who were these silly women who seemed to be completely obsessed with marriage and money? But then, of course, it hit me: irony! My discovery of Jane Austen happened in the autumn of 1995, when the BBC initiated an avalanche of Jane Austen adaptations with its hugely popular six-part adaptation of Pride & Prejudice . It was probably fortunate that I had got all the way through the novel before I saw a single episode. I tend to shy away from anything that gets too much media exposure. But again, living outside the UK, I was allowed to feel I had made my own way. By the time I realised what a phenomenon these adaptations were I was completely addicted. As I am writing this ITV has just presented a season of a new generation of Jane Austen adaptations, and the BBC are rumoured to be nurturing a project of their own. Last year a big screen adaptation of Pride & Prejudice was released in the cinemas to great critical acclaim. In addition, a film based on Jane Austen's early years, Becoming Jane , was released in Britain in early March. Whether the great Jane will create the same kind of commotion this time round remains to be seen, but a certain amount of interest seems to be guaranteed. I have previously written two term papers on the adaptation of Jane Austen's novels: • 'Jane Austen's Emma – Fra bok til fjernsyn' [From book to television] for the course MEVIT051 – TV-analyse [TV analysis], part of Medievitenskap mellomfag [Media Studies, Intermediate subject, Undergraduate level], in the spring of 1997. v • 'Sense & Sensibility – To diskurser - én historie?' [Two discourses - one story?] for the course MEVITH510 – Film og litteratur [Film and literature], part of Medievitenskap hovedfag [Media Studies, Main subject, Graduate level] in the spring of 1998. I have borrowed freely from these papers in my thesis. I have also drawn on some aspects of my essay 'Wit & Vivacity – The Comedy of Jane Austen', presented as part of the course 'The Early English Novel' in the spring of 1997, a main subject for the same graduate studies in English of which this thesis is also part. The completion of this thesis has been a long time coming. My original idea was hatched all the way back in the spring of 1997, and my original plan was to hand it in a year later. In January of 1998, however, a burst water pipe put my thesis on a very definite hold, and it has been a stalking shadow in my life ever since. I did manage to return