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Lost in Translation?: Harry Potter, from Page to Screen
Program Code:
490
Date:
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Time:
11:00 AM to 11:50 AM
EST
SPEAKER
:
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Philip Nel is Associate Professor of English and Director of the graduate Program in Children's Literature at Kansas State University. He is author of The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats (2007); Dr. Seuss: American Icon (2004); The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks (2002), J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide (2001); and Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature (forthcoming, 2008), co-edited with Julia Mickenberg. His work on Seuss and Rowling has led to appearances on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR's Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and Talk of the Nation. Currently, Phil is writing a critical biography of Crockett Johnson (author of Harold and the Purple Crayon) and Ruth Krauss (author of A Hole Is to Dig), two children's writers who were married to one another.
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Description
As Linda Hutcheon writes of film adaptations, "The more popular and beloved the novel, the more likely the discontent." She cites Christopher Columbus: "People would have crucified me if I hadn't been faithful to the books." From Columbus's literalism to Alfonso Cuarón's symbolically laden realism to Mike Newell's psychologically astute Young Adult movie, the Harry Potter films illuminate the director's power to shape audiences' experiences — and how audiences can resist. The attempt to achieve fidelity hampers the first two films, and recognizing the impossibility of fidelity liberates the second two. Since different media have different constraints, key to successful adaptation is translating each novel's intended effect. While Columbus pursues special effects, Cuarón and Newell recognize that plot and character drive Rowling's narratives. Yet Columbus offers familiar pleasures to fans, many of whom protested the later films' creative liberties. Whether we enjoy or resist adaptation depends upon the degree to which what the director sees as the intended effects matches what we see as the intended effects.
In consideration of the permission granted herein, Content Management Corporation agrees to print following copyright notice in each copy of the audio recording concerned: "Lost in Translation: Harry Potter, from Page to Screen " Copyright © 2007 by Philip Nel.