A Comprehensively Comarative Study on Film and Literature in Anglophone Culture through the Media of Electronic Filmic Images and Electronic Literary Texts.

2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 16320035
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: ヨーロッパ語系文学
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: HIRAISHI Takaki The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociologies, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (10133323)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAKAHASHI Kazuhisa The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociologies, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (10108102) ; OHASHI Yoichi The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociologies, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (20126014) ; SHIBATA Motoyuki The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociologies, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (90170901)
• Project Period (FY): 2004 – 2006
• Keywords: American Literature / British Literature / Cinema / Film Studies / Cultural Studies / Cultural Strategies / Comparative Culture / Adaptationki

Research Abstract

The primary purpose of this project was to investigate cultural interfaces between literature and cinema in the Anglophone cultures through various electronic media, those electronic materials which have been accumulated and made available recently, but which have been neither users-researchers-friendly nor appropriate to serious research projects as well as to theoretical inquiries. Our first and fast task was to construct some comprehensive databases whose accessibility would be improved and heightened ; and at the same time to define and draw boundaries which would distinguish original products (i.e. literary texts) with their derivative byproducts(i.e. cinemas). Our project in its quantitative aspect was to collect and systematize cinematic images and literary texts, while our project in its qualitative one was to think about adaptations in various cultural phenomena. Database construction and theoretical consideration. The final results of both were 1) an incomplete database, whos e construction in a very short period became next impossible, but is now under construction on its way to final approximate completion, and 2)incomplete theoretical investigation, which in early stages of our project confronted some theoretical aporia, this postmodern one in which any borders between originals and copies were lost while every cultural product can be viewed as somewhat adaptation. This aporia proves to be very productive because it instigates various kinds of theoretical investigations. Adaptation studies were tremendously useful to our project ; and our own investigations, once their results are publicized in the near future, might be welcomed as innovative ones bringing some useful insights. Any relationships between Cinema and Literature in the Anglophone cultures are unpredictably patterned and can be articulated into the other cultural activities. This basic insight can be proved and preserved by using electronic images and texts for the future educational and heuristic cultural activities.