Framing and Reframing the Ladies

Striving to leave fidelity-criticism behind, this comparative analysis treats Henry James' Portrait of a Lady and its cinematic counterpart by Jane Campion as complementary versions of Isabel's story. The graphic integration of stills functioning as visual evidence emphasizes the dialogic quality of this comparison based on non-essentialist feminist and post-structuralist principles. Mainly focusing on literary and visual strategies employed by both media to represent wo/men on page and screen, this analysis shows how those strategies result in a non-affirmative realism preventing both novel and movie from killing their 'ladies' into art.

Autorentext

The Author: Heike Andrea Fahrenberg, Associate Professor at Middlebury College, Vermont (USA); 1990 completion of vocational training as laboratory assistant (Biology); 1997 M.A. in German, American, and English Studies at the University of Mainz; 1998 Teachers' State Exam (Staatsexamen) in German and English at the University of Mainz; 1994/1995 student stipend at Middlebury College, VT (USA) combined with assignment as German teaching assistant; 1998/1999 lecturer at the University of California at Davis (USA), English Department; 1999/2000 instructor at the University of Mainz, American Studies Department; since 2000 Director of the C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in Germany; 2006 Dr. phil. in American Studies at the University of Mainz.

Inhalt

Contents: Self-Reflexive Acts of Framing - Framing Buildings, Framing Minds - On Houses, Prisons, Convention(s) - Narcissism's Empty Mirrors - Isabel, Osmond, and Emerson - What's Love Got to Do With It? - Convention Incarnate: Osmond as the World's 'Evil Eye' - Observing the Proprieties - Falling for Merle - Caught in Convention's Cage - The House of Darkness - Preferring Osmond - Consummate Pieces Cosumed: The Ball of Convention - Convention Contextualized - Imperfect Closure - Perfect Endings - Non-Affirmative Realism.