1. Did reading books beyond the five selected for our examinations in any way help with your analyzing the larger topics in the text?
Yes, definitely. In CJC, we are more preoccupied with the texts that are tested for the A levels and our lessons are all about close analysis of the way women are portrayed in these choice books. However, we tend to forget that the theme of paper 5 is Women in Literature, not Women in 3 Novels Chosen by CJC. By studying feminist literature in a wide variety of books (we explored Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, among others) we were able to gain a broader perspective on how different feminists from different eras challenged feminine stereotypes through their writing. While Jane Austen preferred to take a softer approach to feminism in literature, having her characters more subdued and withdrawn while resisting the male characters in their own subtle ways, the Bronte sisters preferred to have more daring and outspoken female characters whose boldness shocked and directly challenged the feminine ideal of their period. In fact, it is interesting to see how feminists could be opposing each other’s depictions of women in their novels (the Bronte sisters were very opposed to Austen’s genteel ladies) instead of just the male stereotype of them, as we often imagine. In Cambridge, we skimmed over many novels which allowed us more of an overview of feminist literature and gave us much more contextual knowledge about the time period within feminist literature was written and what it was written in response to, and this is indeed a contrast to CJC where we explore the ideas of feminist lit thoroughly but do not relate it to the social dynamics of the time. This is the same with Tragedy. The idea of Tragedy is a key one in books like Tess and The Birthday Party, and it was very good to get an understanding of how the genre evolved and changed over time. We also learnt about the key characteristics of tragedy and we feel that although this was not directly applicable to our analysis of the text, it is still important to know as it can contribute to our reading experience and make us more conscious of the methods through which writers bring out this theme in their books.
2. Is it possible for a novel to be adapted into a film while withholding all the major elements of the novel?
Nope. Generally, a film is a filmmaker’s reinterpretation of a novel, and therefore some of the key or major ideas of the text will inevitably be carried over into the film. You will never be able to withhold all the major elements of a novel and still translate it to the screen, because as we saw while exploring tragedy, sometimes the elements that make up a novel can be the plot that the novel operates on. However, it is possible to create a film adaptation of a novel while withholding some of the novel’s elements and themes and focusing on others. As different filmmakers are struck by different aspects of the novel or of the characters, they will inevitably angle the film such that more of that aspect will be shown in their adaptation. For example, Zeffirelli decided to explore Hamlet’s internal struggle with his Oedipus complex and guilt, choosing to make his film more of an analysis of Hamlet’s psychology. In contrast, Branagh’s version sought to highlight Hamlet’s violent side and portrayed him as a man of action. Therefore, while not all the major elements of a novel can be kept out of film adaptations, some films may seem completely different because of the themes that the film director picks out to portray.
