{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69438"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69438","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Novelists/scenarists: Four Case Studies of Writers Adapting Their Own Fiction to Film (Wright, Nabokov, Dickey, Didion)","abstract":"This dissertation presents a series of case studies in which the original authors were centrally involved in adapting their own works of fiction to the screen. The four adaptations examined are Richard Wright's Native Son, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, James Dickey's Deliverance, and Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays. The works chosen are all serious and complex modern novels by major novelists. In each case, the writer undertook the writing of the principal screenplay for the film adaptation of his own work. The films that resulted were all adaptations which earned critical merit and some degree of popular success. The central issue dealt with is the extent to which the writer's involvement in the adaptation was responsible for this success. In each case, I trace the progress of the adaptation from novel through surviving script drafts and other documents to completed film as a means of shedding light on this issue. The evidence in three cases (the exception being Didion) points clearly to the conclusion that each novelist was overly committed to an original or ideal conception of his own work and was too inexperienced in the visual and technical mechanisms of filmmaking to produce a successful adaptation.","abstract_html":"This dissertation presents a series of case studies in which the original authors were centrally involved in adapting their own works of fiction to the screen. The four adaptations examined are Richard Wright's Native Son, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, James Dickey's Deliverance, and Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays. The works chosen are all serious and complex modern novels by major novelists. In each case, the writer undertook the writing of the principal screenplay for the film adaptation of his own work. The films that resulted were all adaptations which earned critical merit and some degree of popular success. The central issue dealt with is the extent to which the writer's involvement in the adaptation was responsible for this success. In each case, I trace the progress of the adaptation from novel through surviving script drafts and other documents to completed film as a means of shedding light on this issue. The evidence in three cases (the exception being Didion) points clearly to the conclusion that each novelist was overly committed to an original or ideal conception of his own work and was too inexperienced in the visual and technical mechanisms of filmmaking to produce a successful adaptation.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kiernan, Maureen Brigid"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-12-15T19:15:08Z","date_published":"2014-12-15T19:15:08Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:00Z","subjects":["Literature, American"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["(UMI)AAI8502203"],"render_values":[{"text":"(UMI)AAI8502203","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/69438","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kiernan, Maureen Brigid"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-12-15T19:15:08Z","10000-01-01","1984"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Literature, American"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/69438","(UMI)AAI8502203"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This dissertation presents a series of case studies in which the original authors were centrally involved in adapting their own works of fiction to the screen. The four adaptations examined are Richard Wright's Native Son, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, James Dickey's Deliverance, and Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays. The works chosen are all serious and complex modern novels by major novelists. In each case, the writer undertook the writing of the principal screenplay for the film adaptation of his own work. The films that resulted were all adaptations which earned critical merit and some degree of popular success. The central issue dealt with is the extent to which the writer's involvement in the adaptation was responsible for this success. In each case, I trace the progress of the adaptation from novel through surviving script drafts and other documents to completed film as a means of shedding light on this issue. The evidence in three cases (the exception being Didion) points clearly to the conclusion that each novelist was overly committed to an original or ideal conception of his own work and was too inexperienced in the visual and technical mechanisms of filmmaking to produce a successful adaptation.","Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-15T19:15:08Z (GMT). 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The four adaptations examined are Richard Wright's Native Son, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, James Dickey's Deliverance, and Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays. The works chosen are all serious and complex modern novels by major novelists. In each case, the writer undertook the writing of the principal screenplay for the film adaptation of his own work. The films that resulted were all adaptations which earned critical merit and some degree of popular success. The central issue dealt with is the extent to which the writer's involvement in the adaptation was responsible for this success. In each case, I trace the progress of the adaptation from novel through surviving script drafts and other documents to completed film as a means of shedding light on this issue. 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