Lost in Austen? : fidelity issues, intertextuality & commercialisation in film & television adaptations of Jane Austen's novels

Abstract

This dissertation analyses cinematic and television adaptations or appropriations of Jane Austen's novels through time. When reviewing adaptations, the focus is usually on fidelity to the 'spirit' of Austen's novels and to the reconstruction of the Regency period. Yet watching similar adaptations in hindsight, what comes through is what these adaptations say about the culture of the time, rather than what they say about Austen's. Critics of film adaptations, including Linda Hutcheon, Julie Sanders and Kamilla Elliott draw analogies between Darwin's theory of evolution and the adaptation theory, drawing parallels between Darwin's 'the survival of the fittest' and the intertextual elements which persist through adaptations, in this case, of Austen's novels. Quoting Cecilia Salber, it is all about 'Art imitating art, imitating art'. Yet, following the Darwin analogy, which are the stronger elements oozing through the various layers of adaptation? Is art the boost behind the 'survival of the fittest', or is it commercialisation that decides the stronger elements, also intentionally blurring the division between the real and fiction, urging us to get Lost in Austen?