Has your perception of transformations been illuminated by your comparative study of Emma and Clueless? The adaptation of Jane Austen's nineteenth century novel Emma into Amy Heckerling's twentieth century film Clueless has illumi

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Tarren Hehir

Has your perception of transformations been illuminated by your comparative study of Emma and Clueless?

The adaptation of Jane Austen’s nineteenth century novel Emma into Amy Heckerling’s twentieth century film Clueless has illuminated my perception of transformations as it has allowed me to respond and recognise the constants and diversions made to transform the texts and thus enhanced the meaning of both texts and the meaning of transformation. A Transformation is a reappropriation of one text into another into a recognisable form, but interpreted and presented in a different context rather than simply copying or adapting to another genre. The two texts share some important values such as marriage/love, social class, the status of women in society and most significantly the journey to self-knowledge taken up by both protagonists. However as Heckerling’s text is a twenty first century film she had adapted new values of sex, homosexuality, consumerism, drugs and conservation. Heckerling has also modified the context to a Beverly Hills High School to follow the teenpic era and make it more appealing to today’s society. There are a lot of significant changes between Emma and Clueless that may barely be recognized by the uneducated mind. However after studying the two texts one can appreciate Emma in its own right and Clueless in its own right, thus the two texts have the ability to illuminate and enhance ones perception or interpretation of transformations, as a process aiming to show the responder.

Austen’s novel is rich in literary and cultural references. It relies on words for effect and meaning. Language techniques such as satire and irony are evident and present Austen’s social criticisms of the society in the early nineteenth century. An example of the irony used is “She walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders people of high pretension of judgment are forever falling into”. The dramatic irony throughout the novel is that of Emma’s blindness towards her love for Mr. Knightley when readers have seen that they were suited all along. Also irony is used with the relationship between Mrs Elton and Emma, the very qualities in which Emma dislikes about Mrs Elton are the very qualities she possesses herself. Austen has written in third person, however her use of the omniscient narrator lets the readers in on Austen’s thoughts, and thus gain deeper understanding of Emma. Use of this stance allows a great deal of observational humour, principally through the ironic distance it creates. Emma’s thoughts allow for moments of high ironic comedy, for example, during her shock and outrage following Mr Elton’s hysterical outburst, “How could she have been so deceived?” She uses a complex narrative style to satirise the typical nature and lifestyle of the people of that time within that context. Modern day responders may get lost in the complex language in Emma as it was designed to be read in the nineteenth century as it is an “escapist” from that time. As a result of this one may find the transformation hard to comprehend. 

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Heckerling uses an immense range of camera angles, shots, costuming, sound and lighting to present us with the transformation, Clueless. Irony occurs through the shift between Cher’s voice over and the images on the screen. This occurs at the beginning of the film when Cher says “I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl…” and we see a close up shot of her choosing her clothes for school on a fashion-coordinating computer. Parody is seen through Christian, as being a romantic male ideal, (his presence is accompanied with slow motion and violin sounds) and Murray one ...

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