Adapting Henry James to the Screen

de Laurence Raw

"One of Henry James's main achievements as a novelist was his ability to demonstrate how the notions of "masculinity" and "femininity" are socially constructed depending on a variety of contradictory social, political, sexual, and economic factors. His unique capacity to understand the ideological function of relationships often accepted as "natural" in late-nineteenth-century culture resulted in fiction that impressed upon readers the oppressiveness inherent within them. Many adaptations of literary classics, however, are influenced by Hollywood conventions that tend to reinforce dominant notions of gender and heterosexual relations. Adapting a novel for cinema or television is first and foremost a business enterprise, where the screenwriter has to take into account the wishes of conflicting interest groups, including producers, stars, directors, and spectators." "In Adapting Henry James to the Screen: Gender, Fiction, and Film, Laurence Raw suggests that most James adaptations have sought to shift attention away from the classical narrative to the audience's interaction with the narrative. He demonstrates that although several adaptations have critically engaged the subject of gender relations, they have often ended up reinforcing rather than questioning accepted norms. Yet, there are instances where individual directors and/or screenwriters have bucked the trend and directly examined "masculine" and "feminine" behavior, thus focusing on how gender notions are socially constructed, not only in the societies represented on screen, but also in the spectators' world." "This book shows how changing priorities affected the ways in which James's novels were translated to the screen and how gender relations were addressed. Raw discusses most of the major adaptations, beginning with Berkeley Square (1933) and culminating with James Ivory's The Golden Bowl (2000). This book also offers new readings of well-known adaptations and considers works that have been critically neglected, such as The Lost Moment (1947), The House in the Square (1951), The Haunting of Hell House (1999), and the four television versions of The Turn of the Screw produced between 1974 and 1999. Adapting Henry James to the Screen is the most comprehensive survey published on James's work on film and television."--Jacket.