The Novel versus the Moving Image

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the reciprocal relationship between the novel and the moving image. In 1940, for most artists and critics, the relationship between US novels and US films was simple: novels were superior. This chapter argues that in the postwar years, films were gaining intellectual cachet on both sides of the Atlantic. By the 1970s, there could be no doubt of the “cinematic” aspects of the contemporary US novel. US audiences began to tolerate longer stories than they had during the high studio era, and the rise of the miniseries led US broadcasters to see the form as a useful vehicle for adapting recent rather than classic fiction. No matter how “literary” the adapted material was, however, most print authors still thought of television as inferior—to film now, as well as print. The chapter concludes by examining the unexpected influence of television on the novel with the rise of Oprah Winfrey’s book club.