Writing Cinema: Film in the Novel from Wilson to Coover
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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2008 Writing cinema: Film in the novel from Wilson to Coover Gregory Robinson University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Robinson, Gregory, "Writing cinema: Film in the novel from Wilson to Coover" (2008). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2805. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/ccfd-1lih This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WRITING CINEMA: FILM IN THE NOVEL FROM WILSON TO COOVER By Gregory Robinson Master of Library and Information Science Louisiana State University 1999 Master of Arts in English State University of New York at Fredonia 1996 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in English Department of English College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2008 UMI Number: 3321115 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, If unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3321115 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PC Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 CELEBRATING FIETY YEARS For its distinctive sophistication, scope, elegance, and potential impact in the field, this dissertation stands far above the usual requirement for awarding a Doctorate of Philosophy in English. Therefore, the undersigned members of Gregory Robinson’s doctoral committee and the Chair of the English Department wish to include a comment to that effect in the submission of his dissertation to the Graduate College. Megaqmecker-Leckrone, Committee Chair Timothy Erwin,! Committee Member Anne Steveps^ Committee Member Donovan Conley, G radue College Representative Douglas Unger, Chair, Department of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of English P O Box 455011 • 4505 S Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-5011 Main 702-895-3533 " Fax 702-895-4801 http ://engl ish. uni V. edu/ Dissertation Approval The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas April 11______ ^ 20 08 The Dissertation prepared by Gregory Robinson _______ Entitled Writing-Cinema: Film in the Novel from Wilson to Coover is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Examination Committee Chair Dean of the Graduate College Examination Comhuttee Member ^ l y . Examinationyiaimittee Member Examination Committee Member Graduate College Faculty Repre§mtative 11 ABSTRACT Writing Cinema: Film in the Novel from Wilson to Coover By Gregory Robinson Dr. Megan Becker-Leckrone, Examination Committee Chair Associate Professor of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas Film and fiction are the sister arts of the twentieth century. Like any family, their relationship has not always been a tranquil one, but no other combination of arts over the last century has inspired the amount of debate and dialogue that they have, both in and out of academia. Beginning with George Bluestone's seminal Novels into Film (1957), academic involvement with film and fiction have primarily used two modes of comparative studies: adaptation and stylistics. The first compares a novel to its cinematic adaptation and the second compares a particular literary form with a cinematic technique. Although both approaches are helpful ways of understanding film and the novel, comparative studies foreground a reliance on the theorist's ability to construct a set of similarities and differences between the two mediums. As an alternative, I propose that a careful examination of the literary representation of cinema ni can produce several productive insights into the relationship between the two arts while avoiding the impressionistic pitfalls of comparative studies. Although I organize this project historically, I do not rely heavily on historical analysis. Instead, I attempt to identify key moments or turning points in the history of writing-cinema and provide close-readings that ultimately come together to produce an overall narrative of the changing nature of film, film theory, and the way these changes are portrayed in the novel. First, I place my argument within historical image/text debates and contemporary discussions concerning cinema and the novel. Then, I trace the various means by which film and film theory are represented in the American novel, beginning with Henry Leon Wilson's Merton of the Movies (1919) and ending with Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves (2000). I continue with two close readings of Robbe-Grillet's Last Year at Marienbad (1961) and Robert Coover's The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (2002), two works that use cinema as a means of defining and governing the novel's universe while also allegorizing a our own increasingly media-saturated culture. In the concluding chapter, I offer a cinematic response to my first four chapters by examining movies that ask the viewer to read on screen. Beginning with the intertitles of silent cinema and moving into diegetic images of text, I explore the commonly conceived function of text as a means of applying temporal order in cinema and suggest that even the earliest films to use text both subvert and challenge this role. Using Freud's model of the "Mystic Writing Pad" as an model and Christopher Nolan's film Memento (2000) as an example, I argue that these images of writing can repress as IV much as they seem to reveal, ultimately challenging the supplemental function that text is often assigned. As a whole, this dissertation provides a close reading of several artifacts that are linked by the manner in which cinema and literature represent one another. It offers a formal and even somewhat historical alternative to comparative studies in adaptation and stylistics, and although it is primarily grounded in American novels, it presents an excellent starting point for extending the investigation into world literature and cinematic representations of the novel. All images and film stills in this project pass the four factor balancing test and are therefore covered under the Fair Use Guidelines described in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17U.S.C. §107 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................................................iii LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 1 Image/Text and the Infinite Relation ........................................................................................ 3 Film and Novel Comparisons: Adaptation ...........................................................................11 Film and Novel Comparisons: Stylistics ................................................................................18 Three Characteristics of Writing-Cinema .............................................................................23 Writing-Cinema ........................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 2 FILM IN THE AMERICAN NOVEL...............................................................39 What Is Cinema? .................................................................................................................41 Writing the Film Industry: The Initial Period ....................................................................... 53 Writing the Film Industry: The Second Coming ..................................................................60 From Production to Reception in Walker Percy's The Moviegoer .................................. 67 Writing Twenty-First Century Cinema .................................................................................. 76 Lost Films and a Found Filmmaker in Auster's The Book of Illusions ...........................84 Mark Danielewski's Un-House of Leaves ..............................................................................94 Down the Grand Staircase ....................................................................................... 1...............100