AFEA NEWS: David Cronenberd adaptator
Call for papers
Presentation
Transcr(é)ation is a specialty journal dedicated to intermediality and the dialogues between texts and films, without prioritizing either. This term has been borrowed from translation studies in order to shed some light on the benefits of such a dialogue between the media. We welcome any theoretical or analytical works, interviews, and thematic dossiers on the questions of intermediality, transposition between media, dialogue between and through the arts, or any other foray into related subjects.
For our fourth dossier, we are calling for papers in either English or French concerning Canadian director David Cronenberg’s adaptations.
Languages
English or French
Call for papers – “David Cronenberg, adaptator” (Winter 2024)
As soon as 1983, Toronto director David Cronenberg abandons original screenplays and turns to the practice of adaptation with The Dead Zone (1983), adapted from Stephen King’s eponymous horror novel (1979). An avalanche of adaptations of all kinds then follows. Cronenberg indeed proves to be as inspired by short stories (The Fly (1986) is adapted from the fantastic short story by George Langelaan (1957)), as by novels — as evidenced by the many examples, over three decades, including less studied features such as Spider (2002) or Cosmopolis (2012), respectively adapted from the eponymous novels by Patrick McGrath (1990) and Don DeLillo (2003) —, or by plays (M. Butterfly (1993) adapted from David H. Hwang’s 1988 drama and A Dangerous Method (2011) from Christopher Hampton’s “The talking cure” (2002)), not to mention his interest in graphic novels (as evidenced by A History of Violence (2005), adapted from John Wagner’s and Vince Locke’s work (1997)).
The aesthetics of horror as well as the themes informing his filmography raise Cronenberg to the status of cult director, incessantly recalling his penchant for transgression, his obsession with horror and violence. This observation is also true as regards his adaptations although the choices he made are, for this corpus, mainly induced by the original texts. Let us only think about Dead Ringers (1988), adapted from the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland (1971), Naked Lunch (1991), drawn from William S. Burroughs’ seminal novel (1959), and Crash (1996), based on John G. Ballard’s eponymous novel (1973)—the source texts selected are inevitably in symbiosis with the director’s fascination for transgressing the limits of what is acceptable.
The themes of monstrosity and disease, metamorphosis or double, addictions of multiple kinds and the art of violence run through the corpus of Cronenberg’s adaptations. While some have certainly been studied by critics, this has not necessarily been done in connection with the texts that inspired the director. We therefore propose this dossier on the adaptations of David Cronenberg in order to continue the debate started on the director, his favorite themes and the aesthetics of his films. Studies on one of his adaptations, on several films, or on his entire adapted filmography are welcome, as well as unpublished interviews with the director, screenwriters or authors of source texts (or novelizations, when the film was later adapted into a novel as is the case with Maps to the Stars (Bruce Wagner, 2014)). We are also interested in original articles focusing on similarities – thematic and stylistic – between two or more of Cronenberg’s films (Videodrome (1983) and eXistenZ (1999), to give one example).
Please find below a proposed blueprint for reflection:
– Cronenberg’s aesthetics and relationship to source texts
– Cronenberg’s discourse on his relationship to adaptation
– Literary genre and adaptations
– Diachronic approach to Cronenberg adaptations
– Transgression, violence, horror, etc. between literature and cinema
Timeline
– Deadline for submitting your proposal (including title, 250-300 word summary, address, affiliation and author’s biobibliography (approx. 150 words)): August 15th, 2023, to: transcreation.journal@gmail.com (All submissions will be evaluated and you will receive an answer before the end of August)
– Deadline for submitting accepted articles (6,000 – 8,000 words) following the journal’s guidelines: November 30th, 2023 (peer-reviewing process could last until the end of January)
– Publication of the volume planned for March 2024
Films
Cronenberg, David, Videodrome, 1983, Canada : Universal Pictures.
—, The Dead Zone, 1983, États-Unis : Paramount Pictures.
—, The Fly, 1986, États-Unis : Brooksfilms ; SLM Production Group.
—, Dead Ringers, 1988, Canada ; États-Unis : 20th Century Fox.
—, Naked Lunch, 1991, Canada : 20th Century Fox.
—, M. Butterfly, 1993, États-Unis : Warner Bros.
—, Crash, 1996, Canada : Alliance Communications ; Recorded Picture Company.
—, Existenz, 1999, Canada : Miramax Production.
—, Spider, 2002, Canada : Sony Pictures Classics.
—, History of Violence, 2005, États-Unis : New Line Cinema.
—, A Dangerous Method, 2011.
—, Cosmopolis, 2012, Canada : eOne Films.
—, Maps to the stars, 2014, Canada : Entertainment One ; Focus World.
Works cited
Baetens, Jan, « Novelization, a Contaminated Genre? », Critical Inquiry, Vol. 32, n°1 Autumn 2005, pp. 43-60.
—, Novelisation from Film to Novel, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2018
Beard, William, The Artist as Monster – The Cinema of David Cronenberg, University of Toronto Press, 2001.
—, « Insect Poetics – Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch », Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, Septembre 1996, pp. 823-852.
Boozer, Jack, Authorship in Film Adaptation, University of Texas Press, 2008.
Cañizares, Joaquin, « The strange case of Dr Mantle and Dr Mantle: David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers », The International Journal of Psycholoanalysis, Vol. 91, 2010, pp. 203–218.
Cooper, Rich, « The Divine Exhaustion of Myth and Parable in Cronenberg’s A History of Violence », Journal of Religion and Film, University of Nebraska, Vol. 14, n°2, 2010.
Demangeot, Fabien, « L’imaginaire de l’inceste dans l’œuvre de David Cronenberg », Philologia, Targu-Mures, Vol. 20, 2016, pp. 167-179.
Dunlap, Aron ; Delpech-Ramey, Joshua, « Grotesque Normals – Cronemberg’s Recent Men and Women », Discourse, Vol. 32, n°3, Fall 2010, pp. 321-337.
Fleishman, Avrom, Narrated Films: Storytelling in Cinema History, Baltimore/London : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Gaudreault, André, Du Littéraire au filmique—Système du récit, Paris : Méridiens Klincksieck, 1988.
Gomel, Elana ; Wenninger, Stephen, « Cronenberg, Greenaway and the Ideologies of Twinship », Body & Society, Vol. 9, n°3, 2003, pp. 19–35.
Grammatikopoulos, Damianos, « Insects and the Kafkaesque: Insectuous Re-Writings in Visual and Audio-Visual Media », Humanities, Vol. 74, n°6, 2017, pp. 2-19.
Handling, Piers ; Véronneau, Pierre (eds.), L’Horreur intérieure : Les films de David Cronenberg, 7ART, Les Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1990.
Herman, David, “Toward a Transmedial Narratology”, Narrative Across Media – The Languages of Storytelling, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln&London, 2004, pp. 47-75.
Holland, Timothy, « Cronenberg’s Anesthetics (Virtual Flesh) », New Review of Film and Television Studies, Vol. 15, n°2, 2017, pp. 141-151.
Hutcheon, Linda, A Theory of Adaptation, London/New York : Routledge, 2006.
Jost, François, L’Œil-caméra : Entre film et roman, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1987.
Kellner, Douglas, « David Cronenberg: Panic Horror and the Postmodern Body », Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory / Revue canadienne de théorie politique et sociale, Vol. 13, n°3, 1989, pp. 89-101.
Lauretis, Teresa de, « Popular Culture, Public and Private Fantasies: Femininity and Fetishism in David Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly », Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1999, Vol. 24, n°2, pp. 303-334.
Leach, Stephen, « Evaluating the Representation of Violence in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence », Film Matters, Spring 2011, pp. 13-18.
—, Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of Christ, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2007
Levin, Charles, « Sexuality as Masquerade: Reflections on David Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly », Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 12, n°1, Spring 2004, pp. 115-127.
Lopez Cruz, Ronald Allan, « Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror is Biological Horror », Journal of Popular Film and Television, Vol. 40, n°4, 2012, pp. 160-168.
MacCormack, Patricia, « Phantasmatic Fissures: Spider », Senses of Cinema, Vol. 27, 2003.
Mars-Jones, Adam, « The Films of David Cronenberg, from ‘Body Horror’ Excess to Immaculate Neutrality Mind and Matter », ARTS, TLS, 3 Octobre 2014, pp. 17-18.
McFarlane, Brian, Novels to Films—An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1996.
Middeke, Martin ; Gabriele Rippl ; Hubert Zapf (eds.), Handbook of Intermediality, Vol. 1 – Literature, Image, Sound, Music, De Gruyer Ed: Berlin, 2015.
Riches, Simon (ed.), The Philosophy of David Cronenberg, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2012.
Roche, David ; Isabelle Schmitt-Pitiot (eds.), Bande dessinée et adaptation, Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, 2018.
Saint-Cyr, Yves, « Desire, Disease, Death, and David Cronenberg: The Operatic Anxieties of The Fly », Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, Université de Toronto, Décembre 2011, pp. 451-462.
Silke, Arnold-de Simine, « The Body in the Pool: Reflections on David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars », Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Vol. 17, n°1, 2016, pp. 73-75.
Sklar, Jonathan ; Sabbadini, Andrea, « David Cronenberg’s Spider: Between Confusion and Fragmentation », Institute of Psychoanalysis, Blackwell Publishing, Vol. 89, 2008, pp. 427-432.
Stam, Robert, Literature Through Film—Realism, Magic, and the Art of Adaptation, Malden : Blackwell, 2005.
—, Literature and Film—A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Adaptation, Malden : Blackwell, 2005.
Source: Marie Pascal <mpascal3@uwo.ca>