Film Adaptation As Literary Criticism

Literature and film as two art forms were once regarded as two irrelevant things by many literary critics and film directors. They maintain that literature is an art about words and texts while film is something about presenting moving images with the compound effect of sound and light. Literary works and films are telling stories in their different ways and can’t be mixed up. Inspired by the film adaptation craze in the late1990s, the film adaptations of the literary works began to be considered as a new means to interpret and appreciate literature. From this perspective, film, as the "universal language" and "a cure of the Tower of Babel", is to be reevaluated. Film adaptation as a whole new perspective to interpret and appreciate literature can be applied as one unique approach tot works after they have been scrutinized by major literary theories.Humanity is one of the key words in the western literature tradition. Influenced both by Greece-Roman heritage and Hebrew-Christian tradition, the western literature makes "knowing Thyself" an essential mission in different art by different expressing methods. The heritages of western arts not only demonstrate mankind’s desires and pursuits for power, freedom and liberation, but also illustrate mankind’s anxieties and sufferings of finding a definition for life as well as knowing oneself in different times via various times. Jane Austen is one of outstanding artists. With her witty, warm and ironic strokes, Jane Austen portrays the privileged classes of18th-and19th-century England and shows us her interpretations toward life from the female perspective. The courtship and love affairs of the middle-classed gentlemen and ladies in her times function like the miniascape of life and illustrate the universal truth.With the canonization of Jane Austen’s work in the1930s and1940s, the term "Janeitism" came into being. Because of the well-organized plot and the love-themed stories, Jane Austen’s work have not only gained popularity with many generations of readers but also aroused the interest from the film industry. Since the early years of20th century, a spate of Austen’s film adaptations has been produced. Up to now, most of Austen’s popular novels have two or more film or TV adaptations. Those adaptations throw new light on the critical assessment of Miss Austen’s masterpieces.This thesis takes Jane Austen’s Emma and its three film adaptations as the primary subjects for study. By comparing the similarities and differences between literature and film as two art forms, and analyzing the theme and connotation of Austen’s Emma as well as its three film adaptations, the thesis will prove the potentials of film adaptation as literary criticism.