Comparative Analysis of Literature and Media Genres

1. From Literary to Media Studies
2. Literary Studies and Media History
3. Inter-Art Studies / lntermediality: Literature and Other Art Forms

a) Music and Literature

b) Art and Literature

c) Photography and Literature

d) Film and Literature

“...for none of us can ever express the exact measure of his needs or his thoughts or his sorrows; and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.” — Flaubert, Gustave, Madame Bovary

Media-oriented interpretation investigates

- the thematization of other media;

(Thematization - the mental act or process of selecting particular topics as themes in discourse or words as themes in sentences)

- the relationship between media within literary texts;

- the influence of technological innovations and the appearance of media such as photography, radio, film and television on literature.

Media convergence

Hybrid forms - combinations of elements from areas that were originally separate

It can be:

- combinations of attributes that are traditionally regarded as male and female,

- between diverse materials, styles and colours in the fashion industry,

- between the private and public spheres in architecture or television, etc.

Hypertexts and internet literature

In 'hyperfictions', or fictional hypertexts the linearity of the text is broken and the roles of the author and reader have changed by the empowerment of the recipient in the reading process

→ The author of a hypertext does not dictate the sequence of episodes within the text.

→ The reader is free to decide in what order he or she wishes to read the individual parts of the text.

→ The 'text' therefore offers a variety of readings rather than a single story.

Characteristics of hyperfictions:

- non-linearity

- interactivity

- intermedial features

Inter-Art Studies / lntermediality: Literature and Other Art Forms

Intermediality - interaction between art forms, between literature and other media

The most common topics:

- the thematization and formal representation of music, painting, photography and film within literature.

- adaptations of literary works in other media (for example, electronic media such as television, radio or video).

a) Music and Literature

Three main areas of study:

• literature in music (for example, programme music),

• combinations of music and literature (for example, vocal music),

• thematic and formal references to music in literature (for example, the thematization of music and musicians, verbal music, word music, formal and structural parallels with music) - Musicalization of fiction.

Popular music analysis

interpretation of the language + musical analysis:

- rhythm (with beat as a means of emphasising ele­ments)

- melody and harmony

- sound

- production and marketing strategies (media presentation and star cult)

b) Art and Literature

• structural correspondences between various artistic and literary procedures (for example in the case of the collage)

• coincidental convergence between art and literature when artists and authors react to specific cultural topics

• images that are based on texts (for example representations of biblical or mythical material or historical paintings based on works of historiography)

• descriptions of images (‘ekphrasis’)

• text-image combinations; 'emblems', consisting of a title, an image and a short text describing the image and its relation to the title

c) Photography and literature

- photographs give the impression of representing immediate reality, although they in fact always depict past realities

- precise and detailed reproduction of its object, an extremely objective medium

d) Film and literature

1. transferral of a work from one medium to another

2. ‘multimedial transposition' of material by one or several authors

3. the adaptation of individual motifs or structural techniques from film in the medium of literature, and vice versa

4. comparative analysis of the characteristics of filmic and literary codes and the conditions of production and reception specific to the two art forms

Screenplays

functional screenplays vs literary screenplays (published after major cinematic successes)

Film adaptations of literature

Areas of study:

1. the content of a film

2. various formal aspects

- character constellation

- narrative perspective

- spatial and temporal structure

- dialogue

- the distribution of the sections of narrative

- means of creating distance or an alienation effect, etc.

Lecture 6

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1045