Inverting the vectors: films generating literature

• Grant number: 11/01788-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: February 12, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Comparative Literature
• Principal Investigator: Alvaro Luiz Hattnher
• Grantee: Alvaro Luiz Hattnher
• Host Investigator: Thomas Leitch
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Delaware (UD), United States

Abstract

Over the past twenty years we have witnessed an outbreak of interesting studies that have upgraded the investigation into possible connections between literature and films. Known generically as "theories of adaptation", those studies have been guided by an analysis vector which always departs from literary texts in the direction of films. Added to this is the fact that the overwhelming majority of criticism done by renowned theorists such as Robert Stam and Brian McFarlane approaches almost exclusively texts considered canonical. There seems to be an overemphasis on the notion that the "Ur-text" in an adaptation study should be the literary text. This research aims at discussing some of those concepts, challenging the "binary" models in adaptation studies and showing how the vectors of analysis can usefully be reversed, for example, starting from films to literature. To this end, we present a study on the relevance of the work of filmmaker George Romero to the creation and development of the "apocalyptic fiction," a set of transmedia narratives that has developed steadily in recent years and which, in this research, will be represented by the works World War Z (2006), by Max Brooks and The Walking Dead (2009), by Robert Kirkman. (AU)