Jane Austen on Screen

Jane Austen on Screen is a collection of essays exploring the literary and cinematic implications of translating Austen’s prose into film. Contributors raise questions of how prose fiction and cinema differ, of how mass commercial audiences require changes to script and character, and of how continually remade films evoke memories of earlier productions. The essays represent widely divergent perspectives, from literary ‘purists’ suspicious of filmic renderings of Austen to film-makers who see the text as a stimulus for producing exceptional cinema. Theoretical issues are explored in balance with the practical concerns of literature-to-film conversions: casting choices, authenticity of settings, script ‘amputations’ of the original prose, anachronisms, relevance for modern mass audiences, and the intertextuality informing the production of much-remade works. This comprehensive study, including an exhaustive Austen bibliography and filmography, will be of interest to students and teachers alike.

• A lively and varied examination of literature-to-film adaptations of Jane Austen’s work • Offers diverse perspectives, ranging from literary ‘purists’ to filmmakers • Well illustrated

Jane Austen on screen: a filmography; 1. Short ‘takes’ on Austen: Summarizing the controversy between literary pursuits and film enthusiasts: Sense and Sensibility: Ang Lee’s sensitive screen interpretation of Jane Austen Gaylene Preston; A few sceptical thoughts on Jane Austen and film Roger Gard; Commodifying Austen: the Janeite culture of the internet and commercialization through product and television spinoffs Kate Bowles; 2. Janeite culture: what does the name ‘Jane Austen’ authorize? Harriet Margolis; 3. ‘Such a transformation!’: translation, imitation, and intertextuality in Jane Austen on screen Jocelyn Harris; 4. Two Mansfield Parks purist and postmodern Jan Fergus; 5. Sense and Sensibility in a post-feminist world: sisterhood is still powerful Penny Gay; 6. Regency romance shadowing in the visual motifs of Roger Mitchell’s Persuasion Paulette Richards; 7. Filming romance: Persuasion Tara G. Wallace; 8. Emma, interrupted: speaking Jane Austen in fiction and film Hilary Schor; 9. Reimagining Jane Austen: the 1940 and 1995 versions of Pride and Prejudice Ellen Belton; 10. Emma and the art of adaptation David Monaghan; 11. Clues for the clueless John Mosier; Questions for discussion; Bibliography.