P and P intro

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. From the beginning, it was received favorably by British society. Since then, it has continued to receive wide acclaim across the globe, and is considered to be one of the most popular novels in English literature.

Proof of its continued popularity in modern society is evident by its many adaptations, such as plays, musicals, t.v. shows, movies, as well as numerous works of fiction which continue the story where Austen left off, or else deviate somewhat in telling a unique story in which Pride and Prejudice plays a powerful influence. One such example is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which uses actual text from the novel meshed with scenes of zombies, violence, ninjas and more.

While the previously mentioned example is a fascinating and innovative spin on the classic novel, no adaptation comes close to the majesty of BBC's 1995 production <!--previously I had been calling it the A&E version. While the A&E Network did provide additional funding, and aired the tv series in 1996, it is more correctly the BBC version-->. Starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, the six episodes follow the original novel almost completely. The financial positions of the characters, representations of personalities and appearances, and the progression of events revealed in BBC's rendition are but a few factors which make this series the most faithful adaptation to date.

Some concepts from Manovich that I believe will be helpful for analysis and application are:

• ". . . individual layers can retain their separate identities rather than being merged into a single space; different worlds can clash semantically rather than form a single universe" (xix). While BBC's P and P follows the original novel, they nevertheless occupy separate realms. Austen could probably not have predicted that her story would later become t.v. shows and movies. Instead of reading and imagining to gain meaning and understanding, we now have the option to watch and listen. Same story- but different.
• "What also arrives by 1995 [the year of BBC's P and P debut] is the Internet-- the most material and visible sign of globalization" (6).
• Audience reception patterns
• Visual culture or "information culture" (13).
• Representation and culture
• ". . . elements are assembled into larger-scale objects but continue to maintain their separate identities" (30). Analyzing things like characters, cultural identities, reference to a historical state and its application to modern times.
• How new media and the many adaptations that have been created because of new media (in part), P and P becomes more accessible. Not only is the original novel being made so, but its adaptations and unique perspectives/representations offer further conceptualizations/interpretations.
• "The printed word tradition that initially dominated the language of cultural interfaces is becoming less important, while the part played by cinematic elements is becoming progressively stronger. This is consistent with a general trend in modern society toward presenting more and more information in the form of time-based audiovisual moving image sequences, rather than as text" (78).