See PDF below.

Literature, Cinema, and the Transatlantic Dimensions of Adaptation: Mitteleuropa and the US

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
14-16 May 2024

This multi- and interdisciplinary conference explores cinematic adaptation as a transnational practice between the area formerly known as Mitteleuropa and the US over the
last century from different angles and perspectives, with particular emphasis on GermanAmerican relations. The conference will examine Hollywood films by expatriate directors, German films based on American literary works, and American films based on German literary works, including remakes and international co-productions from the early twentieth to the twenty-first century. Particular attention will be given to émigré and exiled directors, stars, and crews of the Pre- and Post-World-War years, to the Junger/Neuer Deutscher Film of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, but also to contemporary co-productions and international blockbusters.

We welcome proposals addressing the manifold forms that adaptation can take in order to reflect on its discursive effects on both sides of the Atlantic.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The “literary canon” of US-Mitteleuropean cinematic adaptation (Eric Maria
  Remarque, Patricia Highsmith, Vera Caspary, James L. Cain, etc.)
• Adaptation and expatriate directors (Michael Curtiz, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch,
  Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmark, Douglas Sirk, Erich von Stroheim, Josef von
  Sternberg, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, etc.)
• Adaptation and the Junger/Neuer Deutscher Film (Schlöndorff, Fassbinder,
  Wenders, etc.)
• Audiovisual translation as adaptation
• Post-adaptation effects: paratexts (book packaging: retitling, book covers, etc.)
  and reception (book reviews, etc.)
• The mediating role of authors/scriptwriters/producers/actors in the adaptation
  process
• Adaptation and film genres
• Adaptation and film remakes
• Adaptation and film scores
• Adaptation and place: the double careers of expatriate/international stars
• International co-productions (Wes Anderson, Wolfgang Petersen, Tom Tykwer,
  etc.)

Proposals should be written in English and sent to all the organizers, simone.francescato@unive.it, ashleymerrill.riggs@unive.it, stefania.sbarra@unive.it, and klaus.benesch@lrz.uni-muenchen.de no later than February 18th, 2024.

Notification of acceptance will be sent no later than March 3rd, 2024.

Selected References

• Cahir, Linda Costanzo. Literature into film: theory and practical approaches.
  McFarland, 2014.
• Haase, Christine. When Heimat meets Hollywood: German filmmakers and
  America, 1985-2005. Camden House, 2007.
• Koepnick, Lutz. The Dark Mirror: German Cinema Between Hitler and
  Hollywood. University of California Press, 2002.
• Leitch, Thomas M. Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the
  Wind to The Passion of the Christ. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
• Leitch, Thomas. The History of American Literature on Film. Bloomsbury
  Publishing, 2019.
• McFarland, Douglas and Wieland Schwanebeck, eds. Patricia Highsmith on
  Screen. Springer International Publishing, 2018.
• Murray, Simone. The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of
  Contemporary Literary Adaptation. Taylor & Francis, 2012.
• O’Sullivan, Carol. Translating Popular Film. Palgrave MacMillan, 2011.
• Perdikaki, Katerina. “Film adaptation as the interface between creative
  translation and cultural transformation: The case of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great
  Gatsby.” JoSTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation 29 (2018).
• Pérez-González, Luis (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual
  Translation. Routledge, 2019.
• Sandberg, Claudia, Deniz Göktürk, Erica Carter, Tim Bergfelder. The German
  Cinema Book. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.
• Scholz, Anne-Marie. From Fidelity to History: Film Adaptations as Cultural
  Events in the Twentieth Century. Berghahn Books, 2016.
• Smith, Iain Robert. Transnational Film Remakes. Edinburgh University
  Press, 2017.
• Vansant, Jacqueline. Austria Made in Hollywood. Boydell & Brewer, 2019.
• Yau, Wai‐Ping. “Translation and film: Dubbing, subtitling, adaptation, and
  remaking.” A Companion to Translation Studies (2014): 492-503.