Cinematic Fictions: The Impact of the Cinema on the American Novel up to the Second World War (电影小说:电影对二战前美国小说的影响)

The phrase cinematic fiction' has now been generally accepted into critical discourse, but is usually applied to post-war novels. This book asks a simple question: given their fascination with the new medium of film, did American novelists attempt to apply cinematic methods in their own writings? From its very beginnings the cinema has played a special role in defining American culture. Covering the period from the 1910s up to the Second World War, "Cinematic Fictions" offers new insights into classics like "The Great Gatsby" and "The Grapes of Wrath" discussing major writers' critical writings on film and active participation in film-making. "Cinematic Fictions" is also careful not to portray cinema' as a single or stable entity. Some novelists drew on silent film; others looked to the Russian theorists for inspiration; and, yet others turned to continental film-makers rather than to Hollywood. Film itself was constantly evolving during the first decades of the twentieth century and the writers discussed here engaged in a kind of dialogue with the new medium, selectively pursuing strategies of montage, limited point of view and scenic composition towards their different ends. Contrasting a diverse range of cinematic and literary movements, this will be compulsory reading for scholars of American literature and film This book examines American cinematic classics and also looks at some lesser-known figures such as Karl Van Vechten and Tom Kromer. The phrase cinematic fiction has now been generally accepted into critical discourse, but is usually applied to post-war novels. The book asks a simple question: given their fascination with the new medium of film, did American novelists attempt to apply cinematic methods in their own writings? From its very beginnings the cinema has played a special role in defining American culture. Covering the period from the 1910s up to the Second World War, the book offers insights into classics such as The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath , discussing major writers' critical writings on film and active participation in film-making. It is careful not to portray ‘cinema’ as a single or stable entity. Some novelists drew on silent film; others looked to the Russian theorists for inspiration; and yet others turned to continental film-makers rather than to Hollywood. Film itself was constantly evolving during the first decades of the twentieth century and the writers discussed here engaged in a kind of dialogue with the new medium, selectively pursuing strategies of montage, limited point of view, and scenic composition towards their different ends. The book contrasts a diverse range of cinematic and literary movements Cinematic Fictions is often fascinating. Seed makes reference to an impressive range of texts in comparison and counterpoint to those around the key fictions around which each chapter's discussion revolves. This will make this particular study attractive to teachers of early twentieth-century American literature, as well as of American Studies more broadly, of modules that focus on modernity and on visual and film cultures.' Professor Sharon Monteith, University of Nottingham. The phrase "cinematic fiction" generally has been accepted into critical discourse, but usually only in the context of postwar novels. This volume examines the influence of a particular medium, film, on another, the novel, in the first half of twentieth-century American literature. Offering new insights into classics such as The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, as well as discussing critical writings on film and active participation in filmmaking by major writers such as William Faulkner, Cinematic Fictions will be compulsory reading for scholars of American film and literature alike Contents 7 Introduction 9 1 Beginnings 15 2 Modernist Experiments: Gertrude Stein and Others 34 3 H.D. and the Limits of Vision 57 4 Ernest Hemingway: The Observer’s Visual Field 76 5 Success and Stardom in F. Scott Fitzgerald 94 6 William Faulkner: Perspective Experiments 115 7 John Dos Passos and the Art of Montage 136 8 Dreiser, Eisenstein and Upton Sinclair 159 9 Documentary of the 1930s 181 10 John Steinbeck: Extensions of Documentary 202 11 Taking Possession of the Images: African American Writers and the Cinema 220 12 Into the Night Life: Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin 242 13 Nathanael West and the Hollywood Novel 266 Bibliography 289 Index 315