Adapting Henry James to the Screen

"One of Henry James's main achievements as a novelist was his ability to demonstrate how the notions of "masculinity" and "femininity" are socially constructed depending on a variety of contradictory social, political, sexual, and economic factors. His unique capacity to understand the ideological function of relationships often accepted as "natural" in late-nineteenth-century culture resulted in fiction that impressed upon readers the oppressiveness inherent within them. Many adaptations of literary classics, however, are influenced by Hollywood conventions that tend to reinforce dominant notions of gender and heterosexual relations. Adapting a novel for cinema or television is first and foremost a business enterprise, where the screenwriter has to take into account the wishes of conflicting interest groups, including producers, stars, directors, and spectators." "In Adapting Henry James to the Screen: Gender, Fiction, and Film, Laurence Raw suggests that most James adaptations have sought to shift attention away from the classical narrative to the audience's interaction with the narrative. He demonstrates that although several adaptations have critically engaged the subject of ge