|
Employing concepts from film theory, this
much-needed study explores in-depth the
"cinematic" qualities of James Joyce's
fiction, from Dubliners to
Finnegans Wake. Thomas
Burkdall documents Joyce's
biographical associations with the movies,
explains the relationship of the modernist
texts to the art and criticism of film, and
examines the relationship of the reader to
the text. Employing concepts from film
theory, this study explores the "cinematic"
qualities of James Joyce's fiction, from
Dubliners to Finnegans Wake. Although
critics have often noted Joyce's affinities
with the cinema, previous studies do not
discuss the wide range of issues involved.
Not only does this book document Joyce's
biographical associations with the movies,
it also explains the relationship of his
modernist texts to the art and criticism of
film and examines the relationship of the
reader to the text. As Joyce's canon
evolves, different aspects of film theory
and practice bear relevance to his work.
André Bazin's commentary on Italian
neo-realist cinema and Walther Ruttmann's
1927 avant-garde film, Berlin, shed light on
the realistic aspects of Dubliners and
Ulysses, while Sergei Eisenstein's essays
inform a discussion of montage and the
deformation of images, qualities which
emerge in A Portrait, only to blossom fully
in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The fantastic
elements of the "Circe" episode of Ulysses
and aspects of Finnegans Wake are further
analyzed using terms from Vachel Lindsay's
early film criticism and compared to the
French trick films of Georges Méliès. In a
final chapter, recent film theory provides a
lens for examining Joyce's texts; applying
the feminist psychoanalytic concepts of
Laura Mulvey and Mary Ann Doane offers
insight into the manipulation of the gaze in
the "Nausicaa" episode, reinforcing the
patriarchal order. Such investigation
further raises the issues of how the reader
identifies with both the characters and the
text. This book's critical approach not only
considers Joyce and cinema in an
interdisciplinary manner, it also has
important implications for further research
into film and its effects on and relations
to literary Modernism.
|
