Writers On Screen: Embodying The

Abstract

This thesis examines the sub-genre of the literary biopic and its intersections with literary texts and other film genres through the lens of the melodramatic mode. It explores the dramatization of the ‘life-text’, defined as the process by which events in the non-discursive space-time become discursive elements in written and film biography, by looking at the figure of the author in a selection of literary biopics from the classical Hollywood era to 2018.

The number of studies on the biopic is reduced, but those that have been published so far have not examined the strategies of the melodramatic mode in biographically- inflected films. Since the body and presence of the actor is the cornerstone of the biopic genre, as well as the site for the spectator’s investment in the narrative, the embodied authorial figure in biopics becomes a locus of emotional authentication that allows us to identify and decode the forces that are part and parcel of the biopic’s and melodrama’s semantic force fields, and participate in the metamodernist oscillatory experience between irony and earnestness, belief and disbelief, as the body of the writer on screen both enacts and challenges prevailing theories of authorship.

The thesis argues, in short, that film biography must be ‘melodramatic’ in order to be

‘true’ – ‘truth’ being a certain readable, coherently constructed sense of interiority that speaks to what we perceive as reality of the human condition, and which is encoded in the presence and the gestural performances of the actors’ bodies on screen, expressed through (melo)dramatic form. The protagonists of melodrama, and, by extension of biographical films, embody and enact socioethical values, showing the work of emotion and personality in social and political processes.

The majority of the productions under scrutiny are English-speaking productions, but there are also a small number of international films that have been chosen on account of their relevance to particular sections of this study, for in a globalized cultural economy, individual films tend to build meaningful connections across national and cultural borders and address a variety of audiences.

Given its interdisciplinary approach, the critical analysis of the case studies has taken into consideration a varying number of literary, filmic and cultural elements, such as biographical material, earlier or contemporary film adaptations, the director’s/scriptwriter’s previous work, intermedial elements around the question of

stardom. It also examines the intersections of the literary biopic with other film genres, such as heritage or costume drama, as well as the functions of commercial and cultural discourses related to questions of authenticity, which is a central concern in biopics.

The thesis is structured into five parts, which explore varying representations of the author. It begins with a series of theoretical and critical considerations of genre and literary biography, followed by a survey of the critical discourses surrounding the literary biopic. The body of the thesis consists of a series of case studies beginning in the 1930s; it continues with an examination of a number of feminist productions from the 1970s, to finally focus on the contemporary period, which has been seen the release of an ever-growing number of literary biopics.

The study argues for the literary biopic as an increasingly sophisticated category that has engaged in complex ways with both the figure of the writer and our culture at large.

La presente tesis examina el subgénero de la biografía literaria cinematográfica y su intersección con la literatura y con otros géneros cinematográficos, visto desde la perspectiva del modo melodramático. Se investiga la dramatización del ‘life-text’, definido como el proceso mediante el cual los acontecimientos del espacio-tiempo no discursivo llegan a ser elementos discursivos en la biografía literaria y cinematográfica, por medio de una inspección de la figura del autor en una selección de biografías literarias cinematográficas aparecidas entre la época clásica de Hollywood y el año 2018.

Puesto que la figura y la misma presencia del autor son no solo la piedra angular del género biográfico en el cine, sino también el escenario de la implicación del espectador en la narrativa, la figura del autor que se halla plasmada en esta clase de biografía viene a ser un punto de autenticación emocional que nos permite identificar y descodificar las fuerzas que son parte integrante del campo semántico tanto de la biografía cinematográfica como del melodrama, además de capacitarnos para participar en la experiencia metamodernista, que oscila entre la ironía y la seriedad, la convicción y la incredulidad, a medida que la figura del autor en pantalla representa, a la par que pone en duda, las teorías existentes sobre la autoría. Dado el enfoque interdisciplinario de este análisis crítico, se han tenido en cuenta la importancia de elementos de tipo literario, cinematográfico y cultural, como pueden ser el material biográfico, las adaptaciones anteriores o contemporáneas de las películas, el trabajo ya realizado por el director o guionista, y cuestiones relativas al estrellato. Asimismo, se contemplan las intersecciones de la biografía cinematográfica literaria y otros géneros cinematográficos, además de las funciones de los discursos comerciales y culturales relacionados con cuestiones de autenticidad, que es una de las preocupaciones centrales de la biografía cinematográfica.

Resumidamente, la tesis pretende presentar la biografía cinematográfica literaria como una categoría que se ha involucrado de maneras complejas con la figura del escritor y con nuestro mundo cultural en general.