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Adapting Wives and Daughters for Television: Reimagining Women, Travel, Natural Science, and Race.
- Source :
- Adaptation; Mar2022, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p84-99, 16p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- This essay examines the depiction of women, travel, natural science, and race in Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (1864–66) and Andrew Davies's BBC adaptation of the novel (1999). It argues that the adaptation offers a recognizable transposition of Gaskell's text, but makes some significant adjustments that reveal its contemporary reimagining of the novel's gender and racial politics. In particular, Davies transforms Gaskell's unexceptional female protagonist Molly Gibson into a proto-feminist naturalist adventurer, and revisions the casual racism the novel expresses towards black people in line with late-twentieth-century sensibilities. Each text, novel and film, reveals the period-specific ideological forces that shape its portrayal of Englishwomen and African people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- WOMEN on television
TELEVISION adaptations
DAUGHTERS
AFRICANS
BLACK people
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17550637
- Volume :
- 15
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Adaptation
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 155523276
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apab005