The following seminar paper aims to analyse both works, the movie and the book "The Harder They Come" by asking the question which paratextual elements are used to present the plot. Obviously, a movie can make use of different strategies and methods to create a masterpiece, like a setting and the soundtrack. However, a book has also specific paratextual elements that can support the pure text, like a glossary. The following paper will try to compare both ways.
In order to get an answer at the end of this paper, the first chapter will provide an overview of Genette’s theory of paratexts. The second chapter briefly summarizes the plot of the story of both works. In the third chapter, the movie and the book shall be analysed regarding the use of paratextual elements to create unity. Due to the limited scope of the seminar paper, only certain selected elements will be analysed.
Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. Genette’s Paratext
2.2. Paratextual Elements in Movies
3. Plot summary
4. Analysis of the Use of paratextual Elements
4.1. The Harder They Come – Perry Henzell
4.2. The Harder They Come – Michael Thelwell
5. Conclusion
6. References
1. Introduction
The movie The Harder They Come was a great success in Jamaica as it managed to be not only a film about Jamaica, but also a movie for Jamaican people. It depicted realistically what life was like in Jamaica those days and with which problems Jamaican people were confronted. The technical subtleness and the artful dialogues and setting led to one of the most famous Jamaican movies (Thelwell 1991: 138).
As the film was so successful, the idea was born to write a novel based on the same plot. Michael Thelwell, a talented Jamaican novelist was asked to write the book. However, he did at first refuse the offer to novelize the movie since he apprehended to not being able to do the film justice. Later on he decided to write the novel aiming to “[…] range beyond and around the film […]” (Thelwell 1991: 139). As his novel was a great success as well, the question remains, how Thelwell managed it to write the book even if it lacks the elements a movie has, for example the setting, soundtrack and the actors.
The following seminar paper aims to analyse both works, the movie and the book The Harder They Come by asking the question which paratextual elements are used to present the plot. Obviously, a movie can make use of different strategies and methods to create a masterpiece, like a setting and the soundtrack. However also a book has specific paratextual elements that can support the pure text, like a glossary. The following paper will try to compare both ways.
In order to get an answer at the end of this paper, the first chapter will provide an overview of Genette’s theory of paratexts. The second chapter briefly summarizes the plot of the story of both works. In the third chapter, the movie and the book shall be analysed regarding the use of paratextual elements to create unity. Due to the limited scope of the seminar paper, only certain, selected elements will be analysed.
When verifying quotations from Michael Thelwell’s The Harder They Come, plain numbers will be used, e.g. (22). Evidence from secondary sources will be substantiated in an extended form according to the Harvard style, e.g. (Booker, Juraga 2001: 76). The numbers refer to the pages the quotations where found on.
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. Genette’s Paratext
Before this seminar paper is able to properly examine the various methods of using paratexts in the movie and the novel The Harder They Come, the following chapter aims to present the literary theory with which both works shall be analysed. The paper is theoretically based on the works of the French structuralistic literary theorist Gérard Genette (1987). His findings about paratexts in a literary work will be explained in the following.
Genette’s work concerning the differentiation between text and paratext is regarded as a well-established concept not only among the francophone but also the anglophone literary theory (Kreimeier and Stanitzek 2004: VII). In order to understand what a pretext actually is and what it includes, it is necessary to first define the term text itself. According to Genette, text is described as “[…] a more or less lengthy sequence of verbal utterances more or less containing meaning” (Genette 1991: 261). However, a literary piece of writing would not exist in its pure and naked form. The reader is also always provides with additional information, verbal or non-verbal, which goes beyond the literary content, for instance the title, author’s name or a preface. These productions are considered to be the paratext. Consequently, it can be said that the pretext completes the text itself to a literary art piece (Genette 1991: 261). Notwithstanding, it is sometimes hard to distinguish precisely between text and paratext which will become clear in the ensuing analysis of the film and the novel The Harder They Come.
As suggested before, paratexts can appear in different forms, e.g. title, preface of the author’s name on the book cover. Generally, all these various productions share the same function: “[…] to present [the text] and to make it present […]”. At least in these days, a paratext should consequently lead to the consumption of the book (Genette 1991: 261). Genette categorises the productions regarding different aspects, namely space, time, sender, recipient, responsibility and illocutionary force (Genette 1991: 269).
Firstly, Genette introduces a formula, which responds to the aspect of space: “paratext = peritext + epitext” (Genette 1991: 264). Therefore, a paratext can be distinguished in peritext and epitext, the former being the typical category of the paratext. The peritext contains additional information that is positioned around the book, for instance the title which is presented on the book cover or subchapters which can be found within the text (Genette 1991: 263f.). The latter term, epitext, refers to all the messages which are hardly related to the text itself, like additional interviews, private correspondences or other commentaries which is originally positioned outside the book (Stanitzek 2004: 7).
Secondly, Genette groups paratext regarding time, specifically whether the additional message was enclosed before, with or after the publication date of the book (Genette 1991: 264). Some elements are published in advance in order to promote the release of a book for example brochures, advertisements and reviews. These productions are called anterior paratexts (Genette 1991: 264). Moreover, various elements are published at the same time as the release which are then subsumed as original paratexts. A prominent example of an original pretext is the preface of a book (Genette 1991: 264). As suggested before, some elements are published after the release of a book, either as a subsequent paratext (due to a second edition) or belated paratext (due to a later re-edition). The latter can than again be distinguished in posthumous, namely the release after the author’s death and anthumous, when the author is still alive (Genette 1991: 264).
Furthermore, paratexts can be subdivided according to the addresser of the paratext. Therefore, Genette defines the authorial, editorial and allographic paratexts (Genette 1991: 266). Although most of the time the author is the sender of a paratext, which is described by the authorial paratext, sometimes it is also the publisher who is the addresser which is then called an editorial paratext. This is the case for instance with a cover note of a book which can normally be credited to the editor. A third option is that the paratext is composed by a third party, for example a person conducting and recording an interview with the author. This is called an allographic paratext (Genette 1991: 266f.).
When paratexts are categorised according to the addresser, it is also important to do so according to the addressee of the paratext, as it would be to imprecise to just assume the public as the addressee of paratexts. Genette identifies three different groups of addressees, namely the public in general, certain individuals and the author himself (Genette 1991: 267). Is a paratextual element addressed to everyone or narrowly defined to the readers, it is considered to be a public paratext. The most striking example is of course the title of a book which is visible for everyone and should address everyone to tempt potential readers to buy the book. Another type of paratext, defined as the private paratext, is only addressed to certain individual persons who are not necessarily known by the reader. The most private form of paratexts is the intimate paratext which is “[…] addressed by the author to himself, in his diary or elsewhere […]” (Genette 1991: 267).
Besides, one can distinguish paratexts regarding the degree of responsibility for the paratext of the author, respectively the publisher. An official paratext is “[…] a message for which the author and/or the editor assumes a responsibility which he cannot escape […]” (Genette 1991: 267). In contrast, an officious paratext is a production which enables the author respectively the editor the possibility to deny any responsibility for the paratext (Genette 1991: 267f.).
Finally, a last dimension to define paratexts is its illocutionary force. A paratext can either reveal an objective information, like the author’s name or it can contain an intention or interpretation like the genre of the book which should not only be seen as a pure definition but also a decision and promise by the author (Genette 1991: 268).
To conclude, this chapter showed that paratextual elements can be defined on several dimensions and with the help of different criteria. This variety of paratexts has never been consistent, as the appearance of paratexts is directly influenced by the era, culture and genre. Considering the technical advancement in media these days, paratextual elements will develop even further (Genette 1991: 262f.). The only fact that can certainly be said, is “[…] that there does not exist, and there never has existed, a text without paratext.” However, since there are lost literary works of which only the titles are known, there exist paratexts without texts (Genette 1991: 263).
2.2. Paratextual Elements in Movies
Genette’s theory of paratextual elements which was presented above can not only be applied on literary text but also on audio-visual material, specifically on movies (Peach 2004: 218).
Generally speaking, the functions of paratexts in movies are the same as in books. Firstly, they present the film as such and secondly, they tempt potential audiences to watch the film in the cinema respectively at home as a DVD (Peach 2004: 214). Moreover, according to the film theorist Alexander Böhnke, paratexts create the unity of a film (Böhnke 2007: 9).
The phenomenon mentioned in the previous chapter, that the use of paratextual elements in literary works has changed over time is also and especially visible regarding cinematic productions as technical innovations have a much higher impact on movies than on books (Peach 2004: 214f.).
How convincing Genette’s theory can be adopted to films becomes eminently clear when looking at the most prominent dimension of Genette’s paratexts, the dimension of space. As well as a book, a movie has certain paratextual elements that can be defined as peritextual, like the title as well as the opening and closing credits. At the same time epitexts are very common when it comes to movies, for instance in form of posters and trailers which promote the film (Stanitzek 2004: 12f.).
3. Plot summary
In order to analyse the differences in the use of paratextual elements between the movie and the book The Harder they come sufficiently, it is useful to briefly summarize the plot firstly. Although the author of the novel himself states that “[…] this book is not a ‘novelization’ of the filmscript” (7), as it includes more social and political details, both works are based on the same idea which will be presented in the following (7).
Both, the movie and the book tell the fateful story of a young Jamaican man who leaves the countryside to make his living as a successful Reggae singer in urban Kingston. The main plot is based on the real story of a Jamaican gangster called Ivanhoe “Rhygin” Martin who became a famous hero among the poor and uneducated population in Jamaica in the late 1940ies through his violent fights with the police which finally ended deadly for him (Booker and Juraga 2001: 76; Thelwell 1991: 140f.).
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