Howl: poesía en el cine

Abstract

The relationship between literature and film adaptation has frequently been centred on notions of fidelity in which the adaptation in question is often considered as a secondary production to the original text. However, in the last two decades, new perspectives have risen on this subject. Some of the most salient include the works of literary theorists Linda Hutcheon and Mary H. Snyder. In A Theory of Adaptation (Hutcheon, 2006) and Analysing Literature-to-film Adaptations (Snyder, 2011), both literary critics redefine the concept of adaptation not as a product of repetition but instead as a process which involves the appropriation, interpretation and creation of a new product. Along these lines, it is interesting to consider the relationship between Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” (1956) and its homonymous film adaptation (2010) directed by documentary filmmakers Friedman and Epstein. As an artistic production, Howl (2010) resists strict categorization and blurs lines as it combines a multiplicity of genres which include documentary, interview, biography and animation. The result is a new aesthetic and sensory experience that not only defies traditional conventions of adaptation, but also complies with new ones. In the context of my role as assistant in the subject Literatura de los Estados Unidos (6029) of the Profesorado y Licenciatura en Inglés (UNRC), I propose to explore these relationships between literature and film adaptation by focusing on the poem “Howl” and its homonymous film counterpart.