Film Session:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

• 2009 parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.
• It is a mashup combining Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with elements of modern zombie fiction, crediting Austen as co-author.
• The novel was adapted into a 2016 film.
• Director: Burr Steers
• Cast:

Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet
Sam Riley as (Fitzwilliam Darcy) Mr. Darcy
Jack Huston as Mr. Wickham
Bella Heathcote as Jane Bennet
Douglas Booth as Mr. Charles Bingley
Matt Smith as Mr. Collins
Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet
Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Suki Waterhouse as Kitty Bennet
Emma Greenwell as Caroline Bingley
Aisling Loftus as Charlotte Lucas
Dolly Wells as Mrs. Featherstone
Tom Lorcan as Lieutenant Denny
Ellie Bamber as Lydia Bennet
Millie Brady as Mary Bennet
Sally Phillips as Mrs. Bennet
Jess Radomska as Annabelle Netherfield
Hermione Corfield as Cassandra

• Deconstructive-postmodernist version of the source text. Considering that postmodernism has permeated deeply into our popular culture, many contemporary works of art are the result of the appropriation of previous forms for the tranformation to postmodern hybrids.
• Dialogue between Hypertext (Text B or target text) and Hypotext (Text A, source text, earlier text). Terms coined by Gerard Genette (Structuralist) 
• Parody: A parody imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject. (Abrams, 2012: 38)
• Gothic: “Gothic-postmodernism is the clearest mode of expression in literature for voicing the terrors of postmodernity; a mode that is far from dead and in fact rejuvenated in the present context of increased global terrorism”. (Beville, 2009: 8). 
• Monstrosity: “a monster is an embodiment of a certain cultural moment –of a time, a feeling or a place” (Cohen, 1996: 4) 
• Mash-up: a mixture. A literary mash-up is a hybrid; half creative fiction in its own right, and half criticism or commentary on the original work. 

Activities:

1. Why does the film start with that introduction?
2. How is Mr Darcy visually presented?
3. What is the significance of the soundtrack?
4. Can you recognize any well-known actors/actresses?
5. Body Language: the Gaze. Who looks? Who is looked at?
6. Why has Austen’s text been rewritten as a zombie mash up?
7. What do Zombies stand for?
8. Cinematography:
a. Light and shadows
b. Camera shots (Long, Close-up shot)
c. Angularity of the camera:
d. Sound editing

e. Mise-en-scene




Retrieved from http://www.uncanny.ch/2016/06/07/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies/ on June 20th 2016.