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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2020

Michael Stewart
Affiliation:
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
Robert Munro
Affiliation:
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
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Summary

This collection comes out of a one day symposium held at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, in June 2017. Broadly speaking, the symposium brought together scholars working in the area of adaptation and nationhood. The film and television texts examined during the day were produced in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, South Korea, Spain, USA and Colombia – though even this attempt to begin to fix the texts’ national status could easily be undone. Various prefixes (trans, inter, post) and adjectives are used by contributors to this volume – which we’re delighted to say includes two new colleagues who weren't able to attend the symposium: Yvonne Griggs and Jonathan Evans. On a sadder note, while the symposium benefited from the participation of a well-kent and highly regarded figure in the field, we were very sorry to hear of the passing away of Laurence Raw in 2018. Laurence’s chapter would have considered a particular period and type of UK film production, the significance of these films (e.g. I Know Where I’m Going! (Powell and Pressburger 1945) and Whisky Galore! (Mackendrick 1949)) as adaptations, and their continued meaning and resonance in contemporary cultures. While the collection, regrettably, doesn't contain Laurence's chapter, his interests (and enthusiasm!) endure across all the chapters here, most specifically in the work of Munro, Lowe, McNaughton and Galpin. For example, Vicky Lowe also looks at films from a distinctive moment in UK filmmaking. In so doing, she revisits questions of history and nationhood. A key part of Lowe's argument is that the historical, aesthetic, and to some extent social impact of films like The Entertainer (Richardson 1960) cannot be grasped outside of their close relations with their theatrical counterparts; and, moreover, that this has been a neglected part of the study of these films. In this respect, Lowe's chapter supports the argument of Della Coletta that texts must be examined within their ‘ own historical, institutional and cultural environments’ (2012: 24, Della Coletta's emphasis) if their ‘density’ (2012: 16) is to be restored. What scholars have tended to overlook, Lowe argues, is the deeply inter-medial and geographically local nature of these texts’ cultural formation. By being faithful to these films’ historical complexity, Lowe helps us to look not only at these 1960s films in new ways, but also to reconsider what really characterised their theatrical progenitors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Intercultural Screen Adaptation
British and Global Case Studies
, pp. 1 - 8
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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