Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2017

Jane Austen (1775–1817) is not only a paradigmatic example in adaptation studies but also one of the most complex cultural phenomena of our times. The countless adaptations in various media and a seemingly never-ending interest in everything Austen-related have led to a popular construction of both Austen and her work that is equally defined by the existing body of adaptations and subsequent new recreations. Although academics in the field are now exploring this and other related phenomena, scholarly attention is rarely bestowed on the role of the screenwriter in the process. This article explores the importance of such role by considering Andrew Davies, whose work on Austen and in other heritage adaptations is proof of how one screenwriter’s vision has contributed to the contemporary image of Austen. In particular, I focus my attention on Emma/Emma, whom Jane Austen reportedly described as ‘a heroine no one but myself will much like’ (1871/2016: 241). My article aims at discussing the importance of the screenwriter in modelling Emma’s character to modern audiences. Especially known for BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (1995), his work on ITV’s Emma (1996) is just as meaningful and even more challenging, if less recognized. By analysing Davies’ Emma/Emma I will argue how his interpretation influenced subsequent adaptations of the 1816 novel and heroine, thus reshaping them for a twenty-first-century audience.

This article considers the example of Andrew Davies’ 2008 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit as a means by which to identify his ‘recognizable authorial voice’. When Davies refashioned this text for a millennial audience in a different medium and under the influence of the ‘canonical’ norms of classic novel adaptations, he necessarily confronted the Dickensian text with contemporary insights. This is evident in the way Davies subsequently adapts the Dickensian plot and, in particular, the character of Amy Dorrit. As the analysis of this essay shows, the TV series demonstrates Davies’ skills and distinctive authorial voice, with its characteristic ‘detached sympathetic irony’.

This article attempts to demonstrate the influence of screenwriters in film adaptation and the benefits of including screenplays in adaptation studies. It examines the significance of authorial attribution, identifying adaptation issues and discovering omitted scenes and dialogue in the screenplays written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Andrew Davies for A Room with a View (1985 and 2007). These well-respected screenwriters are shown to steer the film adaptations and respond critically to E. M. Forster’s novel of the same name (1908) but also to leave their screenplays open to interpretation in an acceptance of film adaptation as a collaborative practice.

The contours of the Austen fever that encompasses film and television adaptations, sequels, mash-ups and much else besides have been well explored by a number of critics. This burgeoning Austen-on-screen critical industry has, however, yet to pay sustained attention to the Making Of tie-in books that accompanied the burst of Austen adaptations in the mid-1990s. This article makes them its main focus to provide a new angle on the familiar topic of the classic adaptation. Taking Jonathan Gray’s reading that media paratexts are essential producers of meaning as its starting point, the article attends in detail to Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin’s The Making of Pride and Prejudice. In particular, it explores how this volume frames the relationship between the production and Davies as screenwriter-adaptor. Despite Davies’ already-established reputation as adaptor of the classics, and the prestige afforded the screenwriter by British television, the article argues that The Making of Pride and Prejudice resists the idea of the TV screenwriter as auteur. Instead, the process of adaptation is shown to be a strongly collaborative one. This tie-in book therefore highlights the technological and production advances of this series as much as Davies’ now well-known sexing-up of the narrative.

Translating Classical Plays: Collected Papers, J. Michael Walton (2016) London and New York: Routledge, 270 pp., ISBN: 9781138124325, h/bk, £85.00; ISBN: 9781315648231, e/bk, £24.49

The Bloomsbury Introduction to Adaptation Studies: Adapting the Canon in Film, TV, Novels and Popular Culture, Yvonne Griggs (2016) New York: Bloomsbury, 296 pp., ISBN: 9781441166142, p/bk, £25.99