Bridget Jones’s Legacy : Gender and Discourse in Contemporary Literature and Romantic Comedy A daptations Miriam Bross Thesis s ubmitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film Studies (Research) School of Art, Media and American Studies University of East Anglia December 2016 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. A bstract Romantic comedy adaptations based on bestsellers aimed at predominantly female readers have become more frequent in the fifteen years since the publication of Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996) and the financial success of its adaptation (Sharon Maguire, 2001). Contemporary popular literature and films created specifically for women have emerged alongside the spread of neoliberalist and postfeminist discourses. This thesis offers a timely examination of bestselling adapted texts, including chick lit novels, a sel f - help book and a memoir, and their romantic comedy adaptations. While some of the books and films have received individual attention in academic writing, they have not been examined together as an interconnected group of texts. This thesis is the first work to cohesively analyse representations of gender in mainstream bestsellers predominantly aimed at female readers and their romantic comedy adaptations published and released between 1996 and 2011. Through a combination of textual analysis and broader d iscursive and contextual analysis, it examines how these popular culture texts adapt and extend themes, characters , narrative style and the plot structure from Bridget Jones’s Diary . Moreover, the thesis explores how they function as sites of the productio n and circulation of discourses. In doing so, the thesis accentuates wider surrounding discourses and how they contribute to, and are informed by, concepts about gender that circulate within the wider neoliberalist cultural climate. By using an interdisci plinary approach and focusing on ten books and nine romantic comedies published and released over a time span of fifteen years, the thesis reveals intertextual influences across genre and media boundaries and discusses resulting changes in genre convention s over time. It draws attention to culturally and academically devalued popular literary and film genres produced for predominantly female consumers and argues that these texts deserve academic attention because they contribute to the fabric that constitutes contemporary reality. 2 List of contents Abstract 2 List of contents 3 List of illustrations 5 Acknowledgement 7 Introduction 8 1. Chapter: Bridget Jones’s Diary and the Birth of 34 a New Genre 1.1. From column to novel 38 1.2. From novel to film 55 2. Chapter: Identity, Choice and Work – Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries 71 2.1. Underling lit, or where not to work 73 2.1.1. Consuming identities - Confessions of a Shopaholic 75 2.1.2. Workplace exploitation - The Nanny Diaries 81 2.1.3. Evil ambition and childish incompetence – The Devil Wears Prada 86 2.2. Secrets, confessions and choosing a n identity 93 2.2.1. Everybody loves fashion – The Devil Wears Prada (2006) 95 2.2.2. An anthropological case study – The Nanny Diaries (2007) 107 2.2.3. Love cures addictions – Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) 114 3 3. Chapter: Therapeutic Culture and Confluent Love – He’s Just Not That Into You and The Jane Austen Book Club 123 3.1. The therapeutic discourse and love 126 3.1.1. Introducing the male expert – he’s just not that into you 132 3.1.2. B ibliotherapy and Austen – The Jane Austen Book Club 141 3.2. The multi - protagonist romantic comedy 153 3.2.1. Adapting self - help – He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) 154 3.2.2. The creation of intimacy – The Jane Austen Book Club (2007) 164 4. Chapter: Motherhood, Spirituality and Love – I Don’t Know How She Does It and Eat Pray Love 174 4.1. Having it all – women in their thirties 176 4.1.1. Discourses about motherhood – I don’t know how she does it 177 4.1.2. Spiritual individualism – Eat Pray Love 187 4.2. Stars, marketing and adaptations 198 4.2.1. The possible happy end – I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011) 199 4.2.2. Love trumps religion – Eat Pray Love (2010) 211 Conclusion 223 Bibliography 231 Filmography 257 4 List of illustrations Figure 1: Free spirited Bridget, screen grab from Bridget Jones’s Diary . 61 Figure 2: Prim lawyer Natasha, screen grab from Bridget Jones’s Diary . 61 Figure 3: Bridget’s thoughts, screen grab from Bridget Jones’s Diary . 64 Figure 4: Rebecca and Mark, screen grab from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason . 69 Figure 5: Bridget surrounded by couples, screen grab from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason . 69 Figure 6: Andy after her make - over, screen grab from The Devil Wears Prada . 99 Figure 7: Andy at a fashion show in Paris, screen grab from The Devil Wears Prada . 100 Figure 8: Miranda showing her vulnerable side, screen grab from The Devil Wears Prada . 104 Figure 9: Andy at the office of the New York Mirror , screen grab from The Devil Wears Prada . 105 Figure 10: Annie considers a possible identit y, screen grab from The Nanny Diaries . 109 Figure 11: Endearingly incompetent Annie, screen grab from The Nanny Diaries . 111 Figure 12: Meeting Mr Right, screen grab from The Nanny Diaries . 111 Figure 13: Annie confronts the Upper East Side Moms, screen grab from The Nanny Diaries . 112 Figure 14: ‘ Shiny things,’ screen grab from Confessions of a Shopaholic . 116 Figure 15: Becky is out of control, screen grab from Confessions of a Shopaholic . 120 Figure 16: Becky’s danc ing skills , screen grab from Confessions of a Shopaholic . 120 Figure 17: Selfish husbands, screen grab from He’s Just Not That Into You . 158 Figure 18: In contrast: the suppo rtive boyfriend, screen grab from He’s Just Not That Into You . 158 5 Figure 19: Gigi learns an early lesson about men, screen grab from He’s Just Not That Into You . 160 Figure 20: Neil faces societal pressures, screen grab from He’s Just Not That Into You . 162 Figure 21: Allegra retrieves her parking ticket, screen grab from The Jane Austen Book Club . 166 Figure 22: Prudie’s underwear is revealed in public, screen grab from The Jane Austen Book Club . 166 Figure 23: Austen speaking through traffic lights, screen grab from The Jane Austen Book Club . 170 Figure 24: News flash visualising Kate’s worries, screen grab from I Don’t Know How She Does It . 204 Figure 25: ‘The most terrifying creatures in captivity.’ Screen grab from I Don’t Know How She Does It . 206 Figure 26: I Don’t Know How She Does It DVD cover, image from www.amazon.co.uk . 209 Figure 27: Romanticised happy end, screen grab from I Don’t Know How She Does It . 210 Figure 28: Eat Pray Love film poster, image from www.impawards.com . 213 Figure 29: Eat Pray Love DVD cover, image from www.ama zon.co.uk . 213 Figure 30: Liz at the communal morning chant, screen grab from Eat Pray Love . 218 Figure 31: Liz embodies the solitary meditator, screen grab from Eat Pray Love . 218 6 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the University of East An glia for supporting my research and my examiners Professor Deborah Cartmell and Dr Alison Winch for their constructive criticism and useful feedback. I am especially grateful to my supervisor Dr Melanie Williams for p roviding critical comments, corrections and guidance throughout this PhD. Likewise, I thank my secondary supervisor Dr Eylem Atakav for her support. A special thanks to my colleague Dr Miriam Kent for her advice, intercultural translations and numerous con versations over a cup of tea. I would like to thank my family for their unconditional love and support. I am also very grateful to Siriporn Yuennan, Annette Scheider and Hanna Seel for their patience on bad days and the shared laughs on good ones. Writing a PhD is usually considered an individual achievement but thi s one would not have been written without the help and support by all of you. Thank you. 7 Introduction ‘Again, the problem is not the desire to differentiate between forms of high art and depraved forms of mass culture and its co - optations. The proble m is rather the persistent gendering as feminine of that which is devalued.’ 1 In 2001 Beryl Bainbridge, an author nominated five times for the Booker Prize, publicly called chick lit ‘a froth sort of thing’ and dismissed the topics it deals with as a wa ste of time. 2 Doris Lessing agreed with Bainbridge: ‘As people spend so little time reading it is a pity they perhaps can’t read something a bit deeper, a bit more profound, something with a bit of bite to it. It would be better, perhaps, if they wrote boo ks about their lives as they really saw them, and not these helpless girls, drunken, worrying about their weight and so on.’ 3 What Lessing did not realise was that Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary 4 and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 5 had become popular and started a new genre because they were understood by readers as being about ‘their lives and as they really saw them’. Both novels were celebrated for tapping into the Zeitgeist of the 1990s.