Screening the Author: The Literary Biopic

TY - BOOK

T1 - Screening the Author

T2 - The Literary Biopic

AU - Shachar, Hila

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the contemporary representation of the author on screen. It does this through two main approaches: by looking at how biographies of well-known authors in Western culture have been adapted onto the film and television screen; and by examining the wider preoccupation with the idea of what the ‘author persona’ means in broader economic, cultural, industrial, and ideological terms. Drawing from current debates about the uses of the heritage industry and conventions of the Hollywood biopic and celebrity culture, this book re-frames the analysis of the author on screen in contemporary culture and theorises it under its own unique genre: the ‘literary biopic’. With case studies including adaptations of the biographies and cultural personas of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and Allen Ginsberg—to name a few–this book examines how and why the author continues to be a prominent screen and cultural preoccupation. The book has been praised as a ‘daring and imaginative book’ (Dennis Bingham, Indiana University -- Purdue University Indianapolis, USA), that provides a ‘needed study in this developing field of cinema studies’ (Homer B. Pettey, University of Arizona, USA). The book has won the category of ‘Best Book’ in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities Research Awards (2019) at De Montfort University, UK.

AB - This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the contemporary representation of the author on screen. It does this through two main approaches: by looking at how biographies of well-known authors in Western culture have been adapted onto the film and television screen; and by examining the wider preoccupation with the idea of what the ‘author persona’ means in broader economic, cultural, industrial, and ideological terms. Drawing from current debates about the uses of the heritage industry and conventions of the Hollywood biopic and celebrity culture, this book re-frames the analysis of the author on screen in contemporary culture and theorises it under its own unique genre: the ‘literary biopic’. With case studies including adaptations of the biographies and cultural personas of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and Allen Ginsberg—to name a few–this book examines how and why the author continues to be a prominent screen and cultural preoccupation. The book has been praised as a ‘daring and imaginative book’ (Dennis Bingham, Indiana University -- Purdue University Indianapolis, USA), that provides a ‘needed study in this developing field of cinema studies’ (Homer B. Pettey, University of Arizona, USA). The book has won the category of ‘Best Book’ in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities Research Awards (2019) at De Montfort University, UK.

KW - biography, biopic, film, cinema, heritage, Hollywood, celebrity, adaptation, Shakespeare, Austen, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Allen Ginsberg

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-18850-4

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-18850-4

M3 - Book

SN - 9783030188498

SN - 9783030188528

T3 - Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture

BT - Screening the Author

PB - Palgrave Macmillan

CY - Cham; New York

ER -