Monday, March 24, 2014

A New Thesis and More Sources

And to think I wasn't going to go to class last Friday.
Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

I am so glad I did, for we paired up and I was able to bounce ideas off of my classmate, Morgan. She helped me find a new, better way to approach my ideas and research. Shameless shout-out, I know. 

Anyways, I have altered my thesis for the better. Here is my working first paragraph:

An author writes to the best of his ability, to portray what he imagines. Therefore, when an author uses visual aids, such as illustrations or motion picture, he is exerting control over the reader's ability to imagine differently. Lewis Carroll was very particular about the illustrations in his Alice works because he wanted them to portray his view of Wonderland. Similarly, William Goldman, after writing the novel The Princess Bride, also wrote the screenplay in order to make sure his ideas were portrayed in the way that he originally meant them to be. The relationship between an author and a reader is one of trust, but when an author uses other mediums to aide his text, he is infringing on the imagination of the reader.


I have done some extra research on these ideas. I even used the "instant library chat" thingy for the BYU library. It worked really well. The librarian was able to lead me to a source that had a bibliography at the end with lots of other helpful sources. 

This was my short, yet helpful conversation with a librarian over chat. 

The annotated bibliography follows:

Fang, Zhihui. “Illustrations, Text, and the Child Reader: What are pictures in Children’s Storybooks for?”. Reading Horizons 37.2 (1996) 130-142. Print. 

I studied this text to find good examples of why and how illustrations are used in literature, specifically children’s books. Also, it was helpful because it has a list of references of which I explored and found a couple that worked for me.

Farrell, Edmund J., Squire, James R. Transactions with Literature: A Fifty-Year Perspective. United States of America: National Council of Teachers of English. 1990. Print. 

This book is in response to Louise Rosenblatt’s “reader-response” theory. This theory is something I am looking into as an opposing view towards the authors. This book shows ways that the theory has been proven correct in classrooms.

Fraser, Bowen T. Adaptation as criticism: examination of the process as a critical approach as seen through “The princess bride”. Diss. Brigham Young University, 2009. Print.

This dissertation is about Goldman’s adaptation process of turning the book into a film. It especially focuses on the author’s own views of adaptation, and the role of criticism involved with such a task. 

Frazier, Craig. The Illustrated Voice. New York City: Graphis, Inc. 2003. Print. 
This book is primarily about graphic design, but there is a chapter about the relationship between words and images together. I think this will give me another perspective.

Gambrell, Linda B., Jawitz, Paula Brooks. “Mental Imagery, Text Illustrations, and Children’s Story Comprehension and Recall”. Reading Research Quarterly 28.3 (1993). 266-268. Print. 

This is an article about the results of an experiment on children’s recall and memory. I was not so interested in those results, but at the beginning it explained some theories about illustrated books and how they affect the reader. The explanations were something I could look into.

Goldman, William. William Goldman: five screenplays: with essays. New York: Applause Books,
1997. Print.


This was a very intriguing source to find. Although it does not mention The Princess Bride, it has essays that talk about Goldman’s screenplays and adaptations, which is what he did with The Princess Bride. This could give insight as to how and why he adapted it the way he did.


Goldman, William. Word into image. Screenwriter, William Goldman. By Frieda Lee Mock and
Terry Sanders. Santa Monica: American Film Foundation, 1984. Videocassette.


I am very interested in this source because it is an interview with Goldman about his own methods of writing a movie script. I think this will give good insights to his attitudes and methods.

McDowell, Edwin. “Hollywood and the Novelist - It’s a Fickle Romance, at Best”. New York
Times 14 July 1985 late ed.: A.1. Web.


I only studied the abstract of this article, but could request it through BYU. It was written around the time Goldman was at his best, and I think it could help with some background information about the issues at the time for novelists whose books turn to film.

Quillen, Joseph. Personal interview. 17 March 2014. 

This was an interesting interview in which I learned a little bit more about the workings of writing a screenplay. I learned there must be differences between the original novel and the adapted screenplay in order for it to get on its feet as a film.

Rosenblatt, Louise M. Literature as Exploration. United States of America: Progressive Education Association. 1937. Print.

This book was written by Louise Rosenblatt, who coined the “reader-response” theory. This is a theory I want to look into as a basis of reader-text relationship.

1 comment:

  1. I've got some more research ideas for you. I took a more general book to film adaptation route. Hope they help!

    A companion to literature and film
    http://search.lib.byu.edu/byu/id:byu6327157
    This one is a collection of essays about film adaptations

    A Theory of Adaptation
    This is the link to the HBLL copy (which is currently checked out):
    http://search.lib.byu.edu/byu/id:byu5596201
    But, I also found it online here:
    http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=C3CdqCZp8KQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR4&dq=movie+adaptations+vs.+the+book&ots=LBR-pIERqn&sig=-Uio1Jkfxg9CgnBVxfBXWsMBRT0#v=onepage&q=movie%20adaptations%20vs.%20the%20book&f=false
    This one talks about the importance of adaptation.

    Hope these help!

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