A Companion to Literature, Film, and Adaptation

Abstract

Neo-Victorian studies has "arrived" and its progression to academic respectabilityhas taken a similar path to adaptation studies. Wh1le screen adaptations of literatureare as old as film technology and take momentum from the rage for theatrical adaptations,nco-Victorian studies reflect on the more contemporary phenomenon of therecent increase in novels which exploit the idea of the Victorian period, either byrewriting classic texts (such as Great Expectations (1861) or Jane Eyre (1847)), pastichinga Victorian narrative style, and/or a focus on topics that promise to exposethe less seemly underside of Victorian culture. Given the newness of the area asacademic study it has garnered an astonishing amount of interest and yet, incommon with adaptations, the area inspires fascination and loathing in equal pans.Mark Llewellyn observes that neo-Victorian studies "has the potential to help usthink through the ways in which we teach, research and publish on the Victoriansthemselves" (2008: 165), suggesting that its presence within and beyond Victorianstudies has paradigm-shifting potential I begin this chapter with such comparisonsin order to state the obvious and get it our of way: neo-Victorian literarytexts are themselves adaptations; even when they do nor refer back to a singleUrtext, they remain compatible with contemporary definitions of adaptation andappropriation.

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