The Camera-Eye and Visual Fiction: Literary Narrative versus Cinematic Text

The IUP Journal of English Studies, Vol. XIII, No. 3, September 2018, pp. 16-23

Posted: 23 Jan 2020

See all articles by Simran Preet Kaur

Simran Preet Kaur

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU-India)

Date Written: 2018

Abstract

According to a popular assertion, film adaptation of classics is a potent medium to acquaint the younger generation with literary classics. Adaptation, seen as “both a leap and a process,” “can put into play the intricate mechanism of its signifiers only in response to a general understanding of the signified it aspires to have constructed at the end of its process” (Andrew 1984, 97). Ostensibly, the dialectical interplay between a “cinematic text” and a well-constructed “original text” is the focus of this paper, wherein the purpose is to analyze this process in Salman Rushdie’s magnum opus Midnight’s Children (1981) and its film adaptation by Deepa Mehta in 2012. The paper analyzes how far Rushdie, who has written the cinematic text to the movie, feels drained of the mythic juice that powered the book. An allegory of modern India, the cinematic text reflects the volatile events of the post-independent era. The paper further explores how far the struggle for identity and the relation of personal life to the national history has been reconstructed in the film adaptation of the novel. Thus, the paper explores how the cinematic representation of this supernatural tale explores both the tumultuous journey of the protagonist and that of the nation and thereby acts as a medium assisting the younger generation to absorb the complexities of narratives.

Suggested Citation

Kaur, Simran Preet, The Camera-Eye and Visual Fiction: Literary Narrative versus Cinematic Text (2018). The IUP Journal of English Studies, Vol. XIII, No. 3, September 2018, pp. 16-23, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3317299

Simran Preet Kaur (Contact Author)

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU-India) ( email )

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Campus
Sub-Post Office
Katra, Jammu and Kashmir 182320
India

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