Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales (Interventions: New Studies Medieval Cult)

Unlike William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and other great authors who have enjoyed continued success in Hollywood, Geoffrey Chaucer has largely been shunted to the margins of the cinematic world. Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales, edited by Kathleen Coyne Kelly and Tison Pugh, investigates the various translations of Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales to film and television, tracing out how the legacies of the great fourteenth-century English poet have been revisited and reinterpreted through visual media. Contributors to this volume address the question of why Chaucer is so rarely adapted to the screen, and then turn to the occasional, often awkward, attempts to adapt his narratives, including such works as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s lyrical A Canterbury Tale (1944), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s still-controversial I racconti di Canterbury ( 1972), Bud Lee’s soft-core The Ribald Tales of Canterbury (1985), Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale (2001), and BBC television productions, among others . Chaucer on Screen aims to rethink some of the premises of adaptation studies and to erase the ideological lines between textual sources and visual reimaginings in the certainty that many pleasures, scholarly and otherwise, can found in multiple media across disparate eras. CHAUCER ON SCREEN: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales 1 INTERVENTIONS: NEW STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL CULTURE 2 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 CONTENTS 6 ILLUSTRATIONS 10 FOREWORD: Terry Jones 12 INTRODUCTION: CHAUCER ON SCREEN: KATHLEEN COYNE KELLY and TISON PUGH 14 PART I: THEORIZING ABSENCE 30 CHAPTER 1: NAKED YET INVISIBLE: Filming Chaucer’s Narrator: ELIZABETH SCALA 32 CHAPTER 2: “THE PLAY’S THE THING”: The Cinematic Fortunes of Chaucer and Shakespeare: SUSAN ARONSTEIN and PETER PAROLIN 46 CHAPTER 3: CHAUCER, FILM, AND THE DESERT OF THE REAL; OR, WHY GEOFFREY CHAUCER WILL NEVER BE JANE AUSTEN: LARRY SCANLON 58 CHAPTER 4: PROFIT, POLITICS, AND PRURIENCE; OR, WHY CHAUCER IS BAD BOX OFFICE: KATHLEEN FORNI 69 PART II: LOST AND FOUND 80 CHAPTER 5: CHAUCER AND THE MOVING IMAGE IN PRE–WORLD WAR II AMERICA: LYNN ARNER 82 CHAPTER 6: LOST CHAUCER: Natalie Wood’s “The Deadly Riddle” and the Golden Age of American Television: CANDACE BARRINGTON 101 LOST IN THE ARCHIVES 104 LOSS AND THE “RIDDLE” 113 PART III: PRESENCE 122 CHAPTER 7: CHAUCERIAN HISTORY AND CINEMATIC PERVERSIONS IN MICHAEL POWELL AND EMERIC PRESSBURGER’S A CANTERBURY TALE: TISON PUGH 124 CHAUCERIAN HISTORY 125 CINEMATIC PERVERSIONS 134 CHAPTER 8: IDOLS OF THE MARKETPLACE: Chaucer/Pasolini 143 CHAPTER 9: “SORRY, CHAUCER”: Mixed Feelings and Hyapatia Lee’s Ribald Tales of Canterbury: GEORGE SHUFFELTON 162 CHAPTER 10: THE NAKED TRUTH: Chaucerian Spectacle in Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale: SIÂN ECHARD 180 EDIFICES AND ORDER 182 THE ADAPTER’S GAZE 185 NAKED WORDS 189 COMPLICITY 193 PART IV: THE BBC CANTERBURY TALES (2003) 198 CHAPTER 11: PUTTING THE SECOND FIRST: The BBC “Miller’s Tale”: STEVE ELLIS 200 CHAPTER 12: MIDLIFE SEX AND THE BBC “WIFE OF BATH”: SARAH STANBURY 209 CHAPTER 13: SERVING TIME: The BBC “Knight’s Tale” in the Prison-House of Free Adaptation: LOUISE D’ARCENS 221 CHAPTER 14: THE COLOR OF MONEY: The BBC “Sea Captain’s Tale”: KATHLEEN COYNE KELLY 231 CHAPTER 15: SEX, PLAGUE, AND RESONANCE: Reflections on the BBC “Pardoner’s Tale”: ARTHUR BAHR 243 CHAPTER 16: TIME, MEMORY, AND DESIRE IN THE BBC “MAN OF LAW’S TALE”: KATHLEEN DAVIS 252 PART V: ABSENT PRESENCE 262 CHAPTER 17: MARKETING CHAUCER: Mad Men and the Wife of Bath: LAURIE FINKE and MARTIN B. SHICHTMAN 264 CONTRIBUTORS 280 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 284 INDEX 292 Unlike William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and other great authors who have enjoyed continued success in Hollywood, Geoffrey Chaucer has largely been shunted to the margins of the cinematic world. Chaucer on screen: absence, presence, and adapting the Canterbury Tales, edited by Kathleen Coyne Kelly and Tison Pugh, investigates the various translations of Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales to film and television, tracing out how the legacies of the great fourteenth-century English poet have been revisited and reinterpreted through visual media. Contributors to this volume address the question of why Chaucer is so rarely adapted to the screen, and then turn to the occasional, often awkward, attempts to adapt his narratives, including such works as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's lyrical A Canterbury Tale (1944), Pier Paolo Pasolini's still-controversial I racconti di Canterbury (1972), Bud Lee's soft-core The Ribald Tales of Canterburg (1985), Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale (2001), and BBC television productions, among others. Chaucer on Screen aims to rethink some of the premises of adaptation studies and to erase the ideological lines between textual sources and visual reimaginings in the certainty that many pleasures, scholarly and otherwise, can be found in multiple media across disparate eras "Unlike William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and other great authors who have enjoyed continued success in Hollywood, Geoffrey Chaucer has largely been shunted to the margins of the cinematic world. 'Chaucer on screen: absence, presence, and adapting the Canterbury Tales' ... investigates the various translations of Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales to film and television, tracing out how the legacies of the great fourteenth-century English poet have been revisited and reinterpreted through visual media. Contributors to this volume address the question of why Chaucer is so rarely adapted to the screen, and then turn to the occasional, often awkward, attempts to adapt his narratives, including such works as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's lyrical A Canterbury Tale (1944), Pier Paolo Pasolini's still-controversial I racconti di Canterbury (1972), Bud Lee's soft-core The Ribald Tales of Canterbury (1985), Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale (2001), and BBC television productions, among others. Chaucer on Screen aims to rethink some of the premises of adaptation studies and to erase the ideological lines between textual sources and visual reimaginings in the certainty that many pleasures, scholarly and otherwise, can be found in multiple media across disparate eras"--Publisher's description