‘Putting Poets in their Place: Landscape in Poet Biopics’

Hannah Ruth Andrews

‘Putting Poets in their Place: Landscape in Poet Biopics’

Theatre, Film, TV and Interactive Media

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

Abstract

The popularity and ongoing cultural presence of the Romantic poets make them rather obvious candidates for film and television biography. However, the intermedial encounter between the poets’ works and cinema storytelling is a complex and uneasy one. The key objection here, as Christopher Ricks (2009) argues is that ‘a film that proceeds to furnish competing pictures of its own will render pointless the previous acts of imagination that it purports to respect or to honor’[sic]. In representations of the landscapes with which these poets are particularly associated, this problem finds its centre: can the film medium replicate the poet’s contemplative gaze at their surroundings? Ricks (and others) has suggested that to do so is an aesthetic redundancy. Yet within poet biopics, landscape frequently plays a key narrative and aesthetic role, by situating their subjects in geographical, political, cultural and emotional contexts.

Taking into account the issues of adapting poetry and life stories to screen, this paper will explore landscape in poet biopics, focusing particularly on Pandaemonium (Julien Temple, 2000), Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009) and Byron (BBC, 2003). It will consider the tension between the contemporary ‘interpretive gaze’ of the camera, and the transformative gaze of the poem when trained on the romantic landscapes of these poets’ lives.

Original language	English
Publication status	Unpublished - 2014
Event	Screen Studies Conference - University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: 27 Jun 2014 → 29 Jun 2014

Conference

Conference	Screen Studies Conference
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Glasgow
Period	27/06/14 → 29/06/14

Cite this

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abstract = "The popularity and ongoing cultural presence of the Romantic poets make them rather obvious candidates for film and television biography. However, the intermedial encounter between the poets{\textquoteright} works and cinema storytelling is a complex and uneasy one. The key objection here, as Christopher Ricks (2009) argues is that {\textquoteleft}a film that proceeds to furnish competing pictures of its own will render pointless the previous acts of imagination that it purports to respect or to honor{\textquoteright}[sic]. In representations of the landscapes with which these poets are particularly associated, this problem finds its centre: can the film medium replicate the poet{\textquoteright}s contemplative gaze at their surroundings? Ricks (and others) has suggested that to do so is an aesthetic redundancy. Yet within poet biopics, landscape frequently plays a key narrative and aesthetic role, by situating their subjects in geographical, political, cultural and emotional contexts.Taking into account the issues of adapting poetry and life stories to screen, this paper will explore landscape in poet biopics, focusing particularly on Pandaemonium (Julien Temple, 2000), Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009) and Byron (BBC, 2003). It will consider the tension between the contemporary {\textquoteleft}interpretive gaze{\textquoteright} of the camera, and the transformative gaze of the poem when trained on the romantic landscapes of these poets{\textquoteright} lives. ",

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year = "2014",

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AU - Andrews, Hannah Ruth

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - The popularity and ongoing cultural presence of the Romantic poets make them rather obvious candidates for film and television biography. However, the intermedial encounter between the poets’ works and cinema storytelling is a complex and uneasy one. The key objection here, as Christopher Ricks (2009) argues is that ‘a film that proceeds to furnish competing pictures of its own will render pointless the previous acts of imagination that it purports to respect or to honor’[sic]. In representations of the landscapes with which these poets are particularly associated, this problem finds its centre: can the film medium replicate the poet’s contemplative gaze at their surroundings? Ricks (and others) has suggested that to do so is an aesthetic redundancy. Yet within poet biopics, landscape frequently plays a key narrative and aesthetic role, by situating their subjects in geographical, political, cultural and emotional contexts.Taking into account the issues of adapting poetry and life stories to screen, this paper will explore landscape in poet biopics, focusing particularly on Pandaemonium (Julien Temple, 2000), Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009) and Byron (BBC, 2003). It will consider the tension between the contemporary ‘interpretive gaze’ of the camera, and the transformative gaze of the poem when trained on the romantic landscapes of these poets’ lives.

AB - The popularity and ongoing cultural presence of the Romantic poets make them rather obvious candidates for film and television biography. However, the intermedial encounter between the poets’ works and cinema storytelling is a complex and uneasy one. The key objection here, as Christopher Ricks (2009) argues is that ‘a film that proceeds to furnish competing pictures of its own will render pointless the previous acts of imagination that it purports to respect or to honor’[sic]. In representations of the landscapes with which these poets are particularly associated, this problem finds its centre: can the film medium replicate the poet’s contemplative gaze at their surroundings? Ricks (and others) has suggested that to do so is an aesthetic redundancy. Yet within poet biopics, landscape frequently plays a key narrative and aesthetic role, by situating their subjects in geographical, political, cultural and emotional contexts.Taking into account the issues of adapting poetry and life stories to screen, this paper will explore landscape in poet biopics, focusing particularly on Pandaemonium (Julien Temple, 2000), Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009) and Byron (BBC, 2003). It will consider the tension between the contemporary ‘interpretive gaze’ of the camera, and the transformative gaze of the poem when trained on the romantic landscapes of these poets’ lives.

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