Jefferson Hunter examines English films and television dramas as they relate to English culture in the 20th century. He traces themes such as the influence of U.S. crime drama on English film, and film adaptations of literary works as they appear in screen work from the 1930s to the present. A Canterbury Tale and the documentary Listen to Britain are analyzed in the context of village pageants and other wartime explorations of Englishness at risk. English crime dramas are set against the writings of George Orwell, while a famous line from Noel Coward leads to a discussion of music and image in works like Brief Encounter and Look Back in Anger. Screen adaptation is also broached in analyses of the 1985 BBC version of Dickens’s Bleak House and Merchant-Ivory’s The Remains of the Day.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“. . . ambitious and expansive . . . .”―Lucy Scholes, TLS – Times Literary Supplement, 2/18/11
“A substantive, seductive, charming piece of work, this book is a paradigm of good sense and clarity―neither pedantic nor trendy. . . . Highly recommended. November 2010″―Choice
“I recommend this book to those who take pleasure in cinema; I prescribe it to those who need to learn how to write about the aesthetics of cinema, not the ideology of culture.Issue 30 – 2011″―Screening the Past
“Beautifully written . . . surprising and persuasive . . . but never in the sort of language that might deter the non-specialist.”―Brian McFarlane, Monash University
“Hunter draws attention to some works that have received little critical attention and traces the cultural influences and inflections that make them work. . . . This book provides a fascinating contribution to studies of British cinema but also opens out into much broader concerns regarding national cultures.”―Jim Leach, Brock University
Review
Beautifully written . . . surprising and persuasive . . . but never in the sort of language that might deter the non-specialist.
— Brian McFarlane, Monash University
About the Author
A former department chair and director of film studies, Jefferson Hunter is the Helen and Laura Shedd Professor of English and Film Studies at Smith College. He teaches courses in modern literature and film. His previous publications include Edwardian Fiction; Image and Word: The Interaction of Twentieth-Century Photographsand Texts; and How to Read Ulysses, and Why.
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