From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel
In Graham Swift’s fictions, History (more particularly WWII) is often seen through the stories and the memories of the different narrators. As Swift himself put it however, ‘we do not remember things in straight sequence, we remember haphazardly’ and in his writing he tries to mimic this process. Th...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2011-12-01
|
| Series: | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/2344 |
| _version_ | 1818278456726650880 |
|---|---|
| author | Isabelle Roblin |
| author_facet | Isabelle Roblin |
| author_sort | Isabelle Roblin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In Graham Swift’s fictions, History (more particularly WWII) is often seen through the stories and the memories of the different narrators. As Swift himself put it however, ‘we do not remember things in straight sequence, we remember haphazardly’ and in his writing he tries to mimic this process. This is the case in Waterland (1983) and one of the most important challenges of the 1992 film adaptation of the novel was to find cinematic equivalents to this narrative technique without losing the spectator in a dizzying succession of flashbacks and flash forwards. We will not here engage in comparing novel and film and assess the latter’s ‘fidelity’ to the former since, as critic Brian McFarlane and many others since pointed out, this issue obscures other, more interesting aspects. We will study the (re)reading choices made by the director (Stephen Gyllenhaal) and screenwriter (Peter Prince) of the film with, among others, Jeremy Irons as Tom Crick, Sinéad Cusack as Mary and Ethan Hawke, then fresh from his main role as student Todd Anderson in Peter Weir 1990 Dead Poets Society, as Price. We will focus more specifically on the consequences of the transposition of part of the action of this quintessentially British novel to the United States, on the way History is presented and the of the enigmatic ending of the novel into a relatively happy end. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:17:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0b3938f9338b45efad4345fad618d3e0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1168-4917 2271-5444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:17:44Z |
| publishDate | 2011-12-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| spelling | doaj.art-0b3938f9338b45efad4345fad618d3e02022-12-22T00:08:24ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines1168-49172271-54442011-12-0141374810.4000/ebc.2344From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the NovelIsabelle RoblinIn Graham Swift’s fictions, History (more particularly WWII) is often seen through the stories and the memories of the different narrators. As Swift himself put it however, ‘we do not remember things in straight sequence, we remember haphazardly’ and in his writing he tries to mimic this process. This is the case in Waterland (1983) and one of the most important challenges of the 1992 film adaptation of the novel was to find cinematic equivalents to this narrative technique without losing the spectator in a dizzying succession of flashbacks and flash forwards. We will not here engage in comparing novel and film and assess the latter’s ‘fidelity’ to the former since, as critic Brian McFarlane and many others since pointed out, this issue obscures other, more interesting aspects. We will study the (re)reading choices made by the director (Stephen Gyllenhaal) and screenwriter (Peter Prince) of the film with, among others, Jeremy Irons as Tom Crick, Sinéad Cusack as Mary and Ethan Hawke, then fresh from his main role as student Todd Anderson in Peter Weir 1990 Dead Poets Society, as Price. We will focus more specifically on the consequences of the transposition of part of the action of this quintessentially British novel to the United States, on the way History is presented and the of the enigmatic ending of the novel into a relatively happy end.http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/2344Graham SwiftWaterlandStephen GyllenhaalPeter Princeadaptationfilm |
| spellingShingle | Isabelle Roblin From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel Études Britanniques Contemporaines Graham Swift Waterland Stephen Gyllenhaal Peter Prince adaptation film |
| title | From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel |
| title_full | From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel |
| title_fullStr | From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel |
| title_short | From Greenwich to Pittsburgh: the Americanisation of Graham Swift’s Waterland in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1992 Cinematic Adaptation of the Novel |
| title_sort | from greenwich to pittsburgh the americanisation of graham swift s waterland in stephen gyllenhaal s 1992 cinematic adaptation of the novel |
| topic | Graham Swift Waterland Stephen Gyllenhaal Peter Prince adaptation film |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/2344 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT isabelleroblin fromgreenwichtopittsburghtheamericanisationofgrahamswiftswaterlandinstephengyllenhaals1992cinematicadaptationofthenovel |