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• 1 media/Film_and_literature2.jpg media/novel.jpg 2017-11-15T08:20:20-08:00 The Authenticity 42 Introduction into the "aura" and the "spirit" image_header 2017-12-14T20:30:44-08:00

  “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.”

  
  
  
  
   
  Many notable pieces of literature have been remediated into film adaptations over the years because “literature, like other arts, suggested a vast area of communicative possibilities through which it could speak to the audience.” It is this process of reproduction that affects the true authenticity, and thus the connotations, of the original work. Whether or not this authenticity is retained or distorted varies based on different modes of reproducing. For the purpose of this argument, a famous piece of literature entitled, Pride and Prejudice, will be analyzed, using the codex and examples of reproduced film works from the modern era, in order to prove if remediation alters the authenticity and the connotations present.
  
  In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin speaks on how film enhances the effect of the original work by demanding for all of a person’s senses are to be focused on what is being laid out in front of them. This all absorbing and collective experience allows for the connotations of the piece to be easily receivable in comparison to reading plain text on a page. This, according to Benjamin, is because films allow for multiple people to be present when the moving pictures are being displayed rather than an individual reading a book on their own which could cause some disruptions with understanding the meaning of the piece. By cutting and splicing scenes together, the creators have the ability to determine what will be used in order to solidify the connotations that are meant to be explored while ensuring that they are not being interpreted incorrectly. In agreement with this idea is Malgorzata Marciniak when she touched on the concept of the “spirit” of the original work. “In order to be seen as a good adaptations, a film had to come to terms with what was considered as the “spirit” of the book and to take into account all layers of the book’s complexity,” thus connecting the idea of portraying the connotations respectively to the work for the collective audience.  However, both Marciniak and Benjamin chose to side with the argument that no matter how much of the original piece, the spirit, is kept true in the reproduction, the authenticity will never be the same. Benjamin claims this is because the "aura" is no longer apparent because the placement in history is no longer prevalent; therefore, making the importance of a piece of art belittled when reproduced rapidly. It is as if the ability to appreciate the art is harder to come by when it is accessible everywhere you go. In today's age, a classic piece of literature can be produced over and over again in multiple forms such as paperback or electronically as opposed to having to read it in its first edition.
   
• 1 media/JA.jpg media/pp.jpg 2017-12-05T15:41:42-08:00 Pride and Prejudice 23 image_header 547260 2017-12-15T07:58:16-08:00         The novel, Pride and Prejudice, written in the late 1700's, focuses on the Bennet family and their quest to find gentleman suitors for their five daughters. A task that proves to be much more difficult than intended when the eldest, Elizabeth, refuses to settle down with just anybody. She is strong willed, ahead of her time, and an intelligent young woman that stands apart from the rest of female society by choosing her own path and having a voice. It is these qualities of Elizabeth Bennet that controlled the plot of the story, and these characteristics have to be retained in order for the reproductions to resemble anything close to the original work. To showcase how the authenticity of a text can be retained when reproduced into a film adaptation, the 2005 movie version of Pride and Prejudice will be analyzed. A movie with modern technology but with most, if not all, of the Elizabethan verbiage brings the true words of Jane Austen to a culture who has grown accustomed to slang language. This steadfast technique in keeping the proper English words as correct as possible, allows for the idea of the story to remain intact while keeping the connotations as well. 
         
          It is these little aspects of the film which are the constant reminders of the novel.  When lines such as this "Perhaps these offences might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest.." are kept the same, it helps for the "aura" and for the meanings to still ring true in the reproductions. However, just as there are word for word lines throughout the movie, there are also lines that have been altered for the modern audience to understand the meaning. For example, from the original novel the following line read as, "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you," while the 2005 movie version states it as, "All these things I am willing to put aside and ask you to end my agony." These two lines are very different but still have the same idea of expressing Mr. Darcy's feelings towards Elizabeth but the 2005 version is talking about the agony he has been, while the original makes no mention of pain. This is where the reproduction can affect the understandings of the piece because by changing one line, the drive behind Mr. Darcy's confession does not seem as passionately genuine anymore.
  
  
  
   

  "The shooting of a film, especially of a sound film, affords a spectacle unimaginable anywhere at any time before this."

  
  
  
        What the film does differently than the novel is that it invites us into a world, laid out in front of us, without having to use effort to imagine it in our minds. Not only does the movie stick to the turn of the 18th century with the proper wardrobe and obsession over achieving a proper marriage, it invokes the true sense of the "aura." Walter Benjamin explains the "aura" as "the symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art," and this is just what Jane Austen did with this novel. Pride and Prejudice has been remediated multiple times since the mid 1900's because of its universal appeal, clearly stating that it's meanings or connotations stretch past the limits of time. It is this special aspect that has to be kept in the reproductions or else they will lose the authenticity. If the authenticity is lost, then the history is questioned; therefore leading to the power or "authority" of the novel being dismantled.  Thus suggesting that “the authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning.”