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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.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Biopics, Biography, Heritage and the Literary Biopic.- 2. Heritage and the Literary Biopic 'Template': Shakespeare, Austen, Wilde and the Author as Product.- 3. The Muse Speaks Back: Silence, Invisibility and Re-framing Authorial Identity.- 4. Feminine Authorial Mournings: The Female Writer on Screen and the Trauma of the Present.- 5. Appropriating the Beats, Radicalising the Literary Biopic: Intersectional Politics and Ginsberg and Kerouac on Screen.- 6. Conclusion: The Author as Mediator and Barometer.
About the author
Hila Shachar is Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Creative Writing, and Film, and a member of the Centre for Adaptations, at De Montfort University, UK. Her book, Cultural Afterlives and Screen Adaptations of Classic Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), was featured in The New York Times, and nominated for the 2012 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. She has also published widely on topics including French cinema, the screen representation of the Holocaust, the biopic genre and historical film, and Australian cinema.
Summary
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.
