Montage In Literature

Since the invention of film in the end of 19th century, literature has been connected to this special art form more and more closely. This is not only performed as the creation and edition of screenplays, but also seen in the texts of writers. Plenty of writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Andre Malraux, and Marguerite Duras, used cinematic features intentionally in their creation of novels. Babel, a Soviet Russian writer, is one typical example among them. His works, no matter Odessa Tales and Other Stories, or Red Cavalry, both reflect many cinematic features. Plenty of colorful descriptions, lots of successful use of montage and synesthesia and words full of tension could be seen as fantastic pictures in these two collections of short stories. The techniques and characteristics referred above can encourage and stimulate imaginations and feelings of readers, and guide them into an art palace where can be as splendid as experiences of excellent movies.This dissertation first discusses visual characters in Babel's novels. Colorfulness, mixture of light and shadow is one prominent feature in Babel's novels. Color is an important method for him to exhibit themes of works, create literary atmosphere and highlight the traits of characters. The descriptions of light and shadow made his works as spectacular as drawings. The way he dealt with composition and movement is impressive and outstanding. If combined these static pictures by movements, we can see techniques of montage in his works, which was just invented at that time, and they are verifications of Montage theories of C. M. Eisenstein and V. I. Pudovkin. Babel used plenty of montage techniques in his works; they can be classified into four kinds of montage:Sound and Picture Montage, Comparison Montage, Cross Montage and Symbolic Montage.Secondly, from the aspect of narratology, Babel's novels also have close relationship with film. The themes of Red Cavalry are not only limited in pain and darkness brought by war, but also include complicated human natures, religions, art and so on. All of these themes are just the same as war movies'. Red Cavalry and Odessa Tales both have a circular structure, which is similar as the structure of films Pulp Fiction and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Character is a central essence in the realization of circular structure. Another important feature of Red Cavalry is the repeated plots.Lastly, although fiction and film have a lot of differences as they are two diverse art forms, by a series of analyses and comparisons, through the interpretation of their differences, we can cross the boundary of distinct genres and find their commonness. This thesis cite Red Cavalry and "Red Cavalry"Diary as examples to discuss problems emerged when literature adapted into movie, and try to find approaches to solve them.