Over 150 years after it was first published, Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre remains a favourite for film and television adaptations. But what influences and interpretations are at work before it hits the screen? York women’s studies PhD candidate Kathleen Cummins (BA Spec. Hons. ’92, MFA ’95) will talk on Thursday about “The Perils of Adapting Jane! Her Further (Mis)adventures in the Land of Film and Television".
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The talk will take place on Nov. 11, from 7 to 10pm in N201 Ross Building, Keele campus.
There have been at least 26 film or television English-language adaptations of Jane Eyre and a new adaptation is currently in the works. It would seem that both producers and audiences never tire of Brontë’s classic novel.
Cummins, a filmmaker whose doctoral work specializes in feminist film and filmmakers, will examine how the gender relations and sexual politics of Brontë’s proto-feminist text have been re-interpreted and represented in four different adaptations over a 50-year period.
Integrating adaptation studies and feminist theory, her analysis will consider the impact of paratextual factors such as history and market forces, including star personas and studio/network brands, on media producers’ fidelity to Brontë’s vision.
Cummins work has been screened and broadcast internationally. She has written for magazines about film, and her most recent publication is a peer-reviewed chapter in The Gendered Screen: Canadian Women Filmmakers, published by Wilfred Laurier Press. Currently, she teaches courses in the Media Fundamentals Program at Sheridan College Institute for Advanced Learning & Technology.