The future re-visited : 1950s American film adaptions of Jules Verne novels
The future re-visited : 1950s American film adaptions of Jules Verne novels
Since the beginning of cinema, over three hundred filmic adaptations of Jules Verne novels, short stories and plays, known as Voyages extraordinaires (Extraordinary Voyages, 1863-1919), have been produced consistently in more than fifteen countries, from Mexico to Romania to the former USSR, thus procuring the writer an important place in cinematic culture.
This thesis focuses on 1950s and early 1960s American film adaptations of Jules Verne’s novels and examines why the French author’s stories proved so popular with American filmmakers during this period, for what purposes they were taken up and how they were modified to fit into the cultural and cinematic codes of the time.
Through an analysis of the films in their historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts, it investigates how they were shaped by the different and, at times, conflicting ideologies in postwar America. It explores how Verne’s stories responded to some of the demands and preoccupations of the time and how the films in turn participated in the cultural environment in which they appeared. In doing so, it demonstrates that cultural texts and historical eras are not stable but constantly change and re-invent themselves.
By examining the original context of the novels’ production and moving from the nineteenth century to the industrial and domestic context of the 1950s and early 1960s, this thesis argues that the Voyages extraordinaires, and especially Verne’s so-called scientific novels, found cultural resonance in 1950s America by articulating a similar concern with spectacle, technology and mobility and combining a positive attitude towards progress with nostalgic desires.
University of Southampton
2007
Schiltz, Françoise Innes
(2007)
The future re-visited : 1950s American film adaptions of Jules Verne novels.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Since the beginning of cinema, over three hundred filmic adaptations of Jules Verne novels, short stories and plays, known as Voyages extraordinaires (Extraordinary Voyages, 1863-1919), have been produced consistently in more than fifteen countries, from Mexico to Romania to the former USSR, thus procuring the writer an important place in cinematic culture.
This thesis focuses on 1950s and early 1960s American film adaptations of Jules Verne’s novels and examines why the French author’s stories proved so popular with American filmmakers during this period, for what purposes they were taken up and how they were modified to fit into the cultural and cinematic codes of the time.
Through an analysis of the films in their historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts, it investigates how they were shaped by the different and, at times, conflicting ideologies in postwar America. It explores how Verne’s stories responded to some of the demands and preoccupations of the time and how the films in turn participated in the cultural environment in which they appeared. In doing so, it demonstrates that cultural texts and historical eras are not stable but constantly change and re-invent themselves.
By examining the original context of the novels’ production and moving from the nineteenth century to the industrial and domestic context of the 1950s and early 1960s, this thesis argues that the Voyages extraordinaires, and especially Verne’s so-called scientific novels, found cultural resonance in 1950s America by articulating a similar concern with spectacle, technology and mobility and combining a positive attitude towards progress with nostalgic desires.
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Published date: 2007
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Local EPrints ID: 466211
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/466211
PURE UUID: 788c9956-6e92-4c47-99df-121bbb0da9e7
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 04:47
Last modified: 05 Jul 2022 04:47
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Author:
Françoise Innes Schiltz
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