Synopsis
Contemporary Chinese films are popular with audiences worldwide, but a key reason for their success has gone unnoticed: many of the films are adapted from brilliant literary works. This book is the first to put these landmark films in the context of their literary origins and explore how the best Chinese directors adapt fictional narratives and styles for film. Hsiu-Chuang Deppman unites aesthetics with history in her argument that the rise of cinema in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the late 1980s was partly fueled by burgeoning literary movements. Fifth Generation director Zhang Yimou’s highly acclaimed films Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, and To Live are built on the experimental works of Mo Yan, Su Tong, and Yu Hua, respectively. Hong Kong new wave’s Ann Hui and Stanley Kwan capitalized on the irresistible visual metaphors of Eileen Chang’s postrealism. Hou Xiaoxian’s new Taiwan cinema turned to fiction by Huang Chunming and Zhu Tianwen for fine-grained perspectives on class and gender relations. Delving equally into the individual approaches of directors and writers, Deppman initiates readers into the exciting possibilities emanating from the world of Chinese cinema. The seven in-depth studies include a diverse array of forms (cinematic adaptation of literature, literary adaptation of film, auto-adaptation, and non-narrative adaptation) and a variety of genres (martial arts, melodrama, romance, autobiography, documentary drama). Complementing this formal diversity is a geographical range that far exceeds the cultural, linguistic, and physical boundaries of China. The directors represented here also work in the U.S. and Europe and reflect the growing international resources of Chinese-language cinema. With her sophisticated blend of stylistic and historical analyses, Deppman brings much-needed nuance to current conversations about the politics of gender, class, and race in the work of the most celebrated Chinese writers and directors. Her pioneering study will appeal to all readers, general and academic, who have an interest in Chinese literature, cinema, and culture.
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About the Author
Hsiu-Chuang Deppman is associate professor at Oberlin College. She is the author of Adapted for the Screen: the Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film (University of Hawai'i Press 2010). She has published widely on Chinese literature and film in a variety of books and journals, including TV China, positions: east asia cultures critique, Journal of Narrative Theory, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Journal of American Chinese Studies, and Jouvert: Journal of Post-Colonial Studies.
From the Back Cover
"Hsiu-Chuang Deppman's ambitious book investigates the complex associative and conceptual interaction between literature and film, arguing that in many cases, a structural connection underlies the relationship. Her work is a strong challenge to those who believe literature and film should always be regarded as completely separate and unrelated. Deppman's fascinating chapter on the hip Wong Kar-wai and his debt to novelist Liu Yichang well illustrates the way in which directors can play with and play off of narrative structures, in the process setting up a provocative intersection." --Wendy Larson, University of Oregon
"This excellent book is nuanced in its readings, sophisticated in its employment of literary and film theory, and clearly and elegantly written. The author is at ease not only in her analysis of a short story or novel but with formal and poststructural film analysis as well. The book is sure to set the standard for a generation of scholars interested in the question of how fiction and visual culture interact and overlap." --Christopher Lupke, Washington State University
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Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film
Published by
University of Hawai'i Press, 2010
ISBN 10: 0824834542
ISBN 13: 9780824834548
Used
Paperback
Seller: Recycle Bookstore, San Jose, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. This book has rubbing and surface scratching to both covers, shelfwear to the edges and corners of the both covers including bumped corners, creasing to both covers most notable at the front cover, a mild bowing to the front cover, wrinkling to the top cellophane layer of the covers, old paper stickers on the back cover and at bottom of the spine, a tear approx 2 1/2 by 1/2 inch at the bottom edge of the front end page, a cocked spine,and a gentle crack in the binding at the title page, otherwise this book is in good reading condition with unmarked pages, a tight binding, and a clean, glossy cover. Seller Inventory # 1011482