Popular music, from novel to film: language, discourse and meaning in High Fidelity and The Commitments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2010.741n1011Keywords:
Music, urban space, identity, novel, adaptationAbstract
Adapting a novel into a film is not a simple question of translating the narrative plot from one medium to another, it also deals with the cultural competence of the reader / spectator and the meanings and discourses articulated in the interpretation of the texts. Music is present in both novels and films, and so it participates in the process of creating meanings, even when it does not take part in the formal structure of the text. This article develops the analysis of popular music in The Commitments and High Fidelity, two films based on two novels where the ideology of rock music influences both characters and spaces. Songs, musicians and instruments are present in prose, dialogues, sound and image, both in the novels by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby, respectively, and in the films directed by Alan Parker and Stephen Frears, thus demonstrating the multimedia condition of music and its capability to interact with the narrative structure of the texts in the articulation of several discourses.
Downloads
References
Bhabha, Homi (1994): The location of culture, London & New York, Routledge.
Costa, Antonio (2005): Immagine di una immagine. Cinema e letteratura, Torino, UTET.
Doyle, Roddy (1987): The Commitments, London, Vintage.
Eleftheriotis, Dimitris (2001): Popular cinemas of Europe. Studies of texts, contexts and frameworks, London & New York, Continuum.
Faro, Agustín (2006): Películas de libros, Zaragoza, Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza.
Gaudreault, André. et al. (1995): El relato cinematográfico Cine y narratología, Barcelona, Paidós.
Hornby, Nick (1992): Fever Pitch, New York & London, Penguin.
Hornby, Nick (1995): High Fidelity, London, Penguin.
Iglesias, Guillermo (2005): La (de)construcción de la identidad nacional en el cine de Irlanda y Escocia: The Commitments y Trainspoting, tesis doctoral, Universidad de Vigo.
Kassabian, Anahid (2001): Hearing film: Tracking. Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music, New York & London, Routledge.
Keightley, Keir (2006): Reconsiderar el rock. La otra historia del rock, Barcelona, Robinbook.
Mínguez, Norberto (1998): La novela y el cine. Análisis comparado de dos discursos narrativos, Valencia, La mirada.
Sánchez Noriega, José Luis (2000): De la literatura al cine. Teoría y análisis de la adaptación, Barcelona, Paidós.
Sánchez Noriega, José Luis (2001): “Las adaptaciones literarias al cine: un debate permanente”, Comunicar, 17, 65-69.
Shepherd, John (2001): Dal testo al genere. Musica, comunicazione e società. Sound Tracks. Tracce, convergenze e scenari degli studi musicali, Roma, Meltemi.
Stuessy, Joe (1994): Rock and roll, its history and stylistic development, New Jersey, Prentice may.
Wolf, Sergio (2001): Cine/Literatura. Ritos de pasaje, Barcelona, Paidós.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2010 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.
