POP LOREDANA English Literature for Children and Young Adults 1

Literature versus flm. A century old dilemmaThe signifcance of literature and flms in contemporary times Literature in past time was considerate as the only source ofaccumulate information and knowledge. It meant all that the worldcan know about developments in the feld of culture, science,technology, biology, psychology, etc. Thus, literature has alwaysserved as the only source of information from all around the world.People also used literature as way of passing time in their leisuretime.But with the apparition of flms, this has changed. Filmsofered them a more easy way to access all this. Reading wasreplaced with watching images and the information was transmittedmuch faster. Since then the two felds became competitors. Some people stillprefer book and other prefer only flms or both. Each of them canbring positive and negative aspects. Literature and flms have become these days so important in thelife of an individual that it can be said that they are both part of ourculture. Therefore they both contribute to the intellectual andemotional development of a person. They became interdependent toeach other and they cannot be separated. Nevertheless some peoplewill split them and talk only from one perspective. Interactions between flm and literature1POP LOREDANA English Literature for Children and Young Adults 1

Both literature and flms melt in the same place where a variety ofcultures are reunited with history. Diferent genres of literature aspoetry, novels and plays are present in flm scripts that can be seenas literature. Therefore there is a history of bond between flm andliterature, from theatrical narratives of the silent flm era to recentblockbuster adaptations of Shakespeare and Jane Austen. Films are telling and retelling stories, and most of those stories arestill being (or have been) appropriated from literary or dramaticsources. Adaptation has always been central to the process offlmmaking since almost the beginning.1 But was not an easy job toconnect literature with flms. Geofrey Wagner said that to make anadaptation of a book implies three types of transition: transition offction into flms (a book is given directly on the screen with aminimum of apparent interference), commentary (re-emphasis orrestructure in which the original is altered) and analogy (departurefor the sake of making another work of art). Dudley Andrew, adecade later categorized other three modes of adaptation underother names: borrowing (extend the material, idea more or less),intersecting (the uniqueness of the original text is leftunassimilated) and transforming (fdelity for the book is lost).2 Allthese explain why the flm is like the book or the flm is not like thebook. People in the flm industry decide what is better for publicand they will anticipate or predict the verdict. There are a lot of1James M. Welsh Peter Le! "he Literature#$ilm Reader% Issues of Adaptation &'% "(E )CARECROW PRE)) *++, - ,* "homas M. Leit.h Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone With the Wind to the Passion of the Christ&)A% "he Johns (o-/ins &ni!ersit0 Press *++, - 12 *POP LOREDANA English Literature for Children and Young Adults 1

persons who read frst a book and then see the flm and then saythat "The book was better." This happens because they have alreadymade their own perfect flm version. They have visualized it: thelocations, the characters, the actions. In one word they savoredevery word that they read.3 They had become witnesses of their ownthinking that was shaped by their background knowledge of world.Films not only that they give the text already imagined by someoneelse but they ofer a bigger opening to the world. That is way bothhave an important contribution. Sometimes a person cannotunderstand the message of a book but after seeing the flm thingsare more visible. Films can adapt books to contemporary times andto emphases what is important or not important. A person whowants to deliberate and discover the message by himself can readthe book that ofers more details. Films also can ofer oneunderstanding that opens new perspective. Therefore both literatureand flms can help each other for a better understanding. Films tryto put thoughts into words, emotions into gestures, descriptionsinto actions. And adapters try to satisfy almost every reader alsoplease the audience.4 There is one diference that separates them:images. In books the images are in the mind of the reader whocreates them and in flms are in front of theviewer made bysomeone else. This small diference makes them important asindividual creation, but together they have a stronger force. 2R3C(ARD CORL3))4oo/s 5s. Mo!ies )unda0 No!. *, *++6htt-%##777.time..om#time#maga8ine#arti.le#+11,11129,9*++.html:*1.+;.*+1* 1;%*9lm:*9.+;.*+1* ,%++am