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Film & Literature
"Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit but taste completely different." - Stephen King
Search the Library Catalog
Search Tips
Search for books on your topic in the library catalog. In addition to searching for books on your topic, you may also want to search by broader terms to include the cultural and/or historical context of the film.
Sample keywords include:
- film adaptations
- film criticism
- motion pictures and literature
- film genre and criticism (fantasy films and criticism)
- film title or author (Sense and Sensibility or Jane Austen)
- fictional character (Katniss Everdeen)
Select 'Request Item' to have books from other NOVA libraries sent to Loudoun for pick up. If your book is at Loudoun be sure to write down the call number in order to locate the book on the shelf.
E-books and e-videos are accessible through the catalog. If you see any in your search results, click 'Online access' to open.
Library Databases
The best way to locate articles is through the library databases. Go to Databases by Subject and look under Communication Studies, Film, & Theatre (CST) to find a list of relevant databases. Depending on the scope of your topic, you may also want to look in the subject listing English (Literature) to find literary criticism. You can also perform a search in the databases below.
Remember not to write sentences in the search box. Search by keyword, film/book title and/or name of director/author.
Look for additional keywords or subjects offered. Also make sure to look for toolbars that provide print, email, and citation options.
- Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new window
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Full-text biographies and critical analyses of writers and their work from a variety of periods and disciplines. (VIVA) - Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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A multi-disciplinary database which offers information in many areas of academic study. This database supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study by providing access to journals, periodicals, reports, books and more. (VIVA) - Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Journal articles related to communication and mass media studies. (VIVA) - ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new window
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Magazines and journals. (NVCC)
Suggested Resources
The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen by
This Companion offers a multi-disciplinary approach to literature on film and television. Writers are drawn from different backgrounds to consider broad topics, such as the issue of adaptation from novels and plays to the screen, canonical and popular literature, fantasy, genre and adaptations for children. There are also case studies which allow the reader to place adaptations of the work of writers within a wider context.
Call Number: PN1997.85 .C26 2007
The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film by
Alphabetically arranged entries for film adaptations provide the date of release, the production company, and the director and screenwriter, and discusses the plot of each film.
Call Number: PN1997.85 .T54 2005
Film Adaptation and Its Discontents by
Most books on film adaptation--the relation between films and their literary sources--focus on a series of close one-to-one comparisons between specific films and canonical novels. This volume identifies and investigates a far wider array of problems posed by the process of adaptation.
Analyzing Literature-To-Film Adaptations by
The majority of scholarly treatments for film adaptation are put forth by experts on film and film analysis, thus with the focus being on film. Analyzing Literature-to-Film Adaptations looks at film adaptation from a fresh perspective, that of writer or creator of literary fiction. In her book, Snyder explores both literature and film as separate entities, detailing the analytical process of interpreting novels and short stories, as well as films. She then introduces a means to analyzing literature-to-film adaptations, drawing from the concept of intertextual comparison. Snyder writes not only from the perspective of a fiction writer but also as an instructor of writing, literature, and film adaptation. She employs the use of specific film adaptations (Frankenstein, Children of Men, Away from Her) to show the analytical process put into practice. Her approach to film adaptation is designed for students just beginning their academic journey but also for those students well on their way. The book also is written for high school and college instructors who teach film adaptations in the classroom.
Call Number: PN1997.85 .S59 2011ISBN: 9781441149985Publication Date: 2011
The Literature/Film Reader: Issues of Adaptation by
The Literature Film Reader: Issues of Adaptation covers a wide range of films adapted from other sources. The first section presents essays on the hows and whys of adaptation studies. The last section offers a new departure for adaptation studies, suggesting that films about history can be seen as adaptations of records of the past. The anthology concludes with speculations about the future of adaptation studies.
Call Number: PN1997.85 .L516 2007
The Cinematic Jane Austen by
Jane Austen's novels are loved because they possess a comedic power that is often conveyed through the singular voice of the narrators. Film adaptations, however, have often been unsatisfactory because they lack or awkwardly render features, particularly the voice of the narrators. This work argues for a fresh approach that begins with a reading of the novels that emphasizes their auditory and visual dimensions.
Call Number: PR4038.F55 M66 2009
Fantasy Film Post 9/11 by
Examining a range of fantasy films released in the past decade, Pheasant-Kelly looks at why these films are meaningful to current audiences. The imagery and themes reflecting 9/11, millennial anxieties, and environmental disasters have furthered fantasy's rise to dominance as they allow viewers to work through traumatic memories of these issues.
Call Number: PN1995.9.F36 P53 2013
Authorship in Film Adaptation by
Authoring a film adaptation of a literary source not only requires a media conversion but also a transformation as a result of the differing dramatic demands of cinema. The most critical central step in this transformation of a literary source to the screen is the writing of the screenplay. Authorship in Film Adaptation is an accessible, provocative text that opens up new areas of discussion on the central process of adaptation surrounding the screenplay and screenwriter-director collaboration.
Hollywood's Tennessee: The Williams Films and Postwar America by
No American dramatist has had more plays adapted than Tennessee Williams, and few modern dramatists have witnessed as much controversy during the adaptation process. Placing this body of work within relevant contexts ranging from gender and sexuality to censorship, modernism, art cinema, and the Southern Renaissance, Hollywood's Tennessee draws on rarely examined archival research to recast Williams's significance.
- 'It Wasn't Like That in the Book.' McFarlane, Brian. "'It Wasn't Like That In The Book.'." Literature Film Quarterly 28.3 (2000): 163. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. Discusses film adaptations of literary works. Attitude of literary critics to film adaptations of literary works; Factors to consider on a film adaptation of a literary work; Interpretation of the film `The Age of Innocence.'
- Adapting Jane Austen: The Surprising Fidelity of "Clueless." Galperin, William. "Adapting Jane Austen: The Surprising Fidelity Of "Clueless." Wordsworth Circle 42.3 (2011): 187-193. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. The article focuses on the liberties taken by the cinematic adaptors of films "Mansfield Park," "Sense and Sensibility" and "Persuasion," the feature-length adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. It notes that the liberties that the film "Sense and Sensibility" takes with the novel are efforts to keep faith with the book as way of instruction. Film adaptor Patricia Rozema contends that Austen was unequipped to deal with change in any way apart from one that was conservative and class-based.
- Violence and Entertainment in The Hunger Games Bartlett, Myke. "Violence And Entertainment In The Hunger Games." Screen Education 66 (2012): 8-17. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. The article presents criticism on the film "The Hunger Games," directed by Gary Ross and starring by Willow Shields and Jennifer Lawrence. It notes that the film is an adoptation from the first of a bestselling trilogy of books by American writer Suzanne Collins. It cites that the real insight of the film is in the preparation for the Hunger Games. It mentions that the game has oppressed the nation in the form of distracting the citizens of the brutally and fear of viewers.
- Re-creating the Creature: Visions of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Ward, Sarah. "Re-Creating The Creature: Visions of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." Screen Education 78 (2015): 72-77. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. The article discusses the most prominent screen incarnations of the novel "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley. Topics include the voice given by novel to the anxieties of the human condition, the film adaptations of the novel including the Italian silent "The Monster of Frankenstein," by Eugenio Testa, "Bride of Frankenstein," by James Whale, and "The Ghost of Frankenstein," by Erle C. Kenton, and how each film adaptation deciphers the text.
- The Hunger Games: A Conversation Skinner, Margaret, and Kailyn McCord. "The Hunger Games: A Conversation." Jung Journal 6.4 (2012): 106-13. ProQuest. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. The series of novels and the film, The Hunger Games, presents Katniss Everdeen, a female protagonist, and her journeys through an impoverished, dystopian future world. This review, in the form of a mother-daughter conversation, examines the way the books deal with extreme forms of violence by young people and the treatment of violence in our current culture. We note the historical resonances and possible predictions for the future that the book might offer us. We examine gender and sexuality as it is reflected in the main character, Katniss, and what Katniss, as protagonist, embodies as perhaps a new and developed female character in young adult literature.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Feminist Interpretations/Jungian Dreams Yeo, Michelle. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Feminist Interpretations/Jungian Dreams." SIMILE: Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education 4.1 (Feb. 2004). Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 217. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. In the essay below, Yeo offers a feminist deconstruction of the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
- Based on the Book
- 'Based on the Book' is a compilation of over 1,450 books, novels, short stories, and plays that have been made into motion pictures. Utilizing the Internet Movie Database as the authority, all movies in this collection have been released as feature-length films in the United States, in English, since 1980.
- PBS Masterpiece: Longing, Betrayal & Redemption: An Interview with Screenwriter Andrew Davies
- Outspoken screenwriter Andrew Davies on his four Jane Austen adaptations for Masterpiece, the invented scenes that are his trademark, and which Austen hero he'd drink with in a pub.