May 14-16, 2024

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 25, 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 German- American 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 25th, 2024.

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

Selected References

- 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.

- , 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.

- Cahir, Linda Costanzo. Literature into film: theory and practical approaches. McFarland, 2014.

- 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

 - Yau, Wai‐Ping. “Translation and film: Dubbing, subtitling, adaptation, and remaking.” A Companion to Translation Studies (2014): 492-503.