ICSM Short Stories on the Screen
Best Bet Database: MLA International Bibliography: Try Film Adaptation as a Subject and combine it with Short Stories as another Subject or the name of an author or particular work.
(Click to run targeted Subject searches in the IC Library catalog)
Screenplays and Adaptations:
Motion picture plays (the IC Library has a large collection of screen plays and shooting scripts)
Motion picture plays--History and criticism
Motion picture plays--Technique
Motion picture authorship
Film adaptations (all the films in the DVD colection that are adaptations from other sources)
Film adaptations--History and criticism
Motion pictures and literature
Note: Both --Film adaptations and --Film and video adaptations may be subheadings under types of literature, authors, and individual works:
American literature--Film adaptations
Short stories, American--Film and video adaptations
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Film adaptations
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Film and video adaptations
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Film and video adaptations
Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849--Film and video adaptations
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940--Film adaptations
King, Stephen, 1947---Film adaptations
Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848. Wuthering Heights--Film adaptations
Motion Pictures and Film Criticism:
Film criticism
Motion pictures
Motion pictures--History
Motion pictures--Philosophy
Motion pictures--Social aspects
Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States
Motion pictures--Moral and ethical aspects
Screenplays and Adaptations:
Motion picture plays (the IC Library has a large collection of screen plays and shooting scripts)
Motion picture plays--History and criticism
Motion picture plays--Technique
Motion picture authorship
Film adaptations (all the films in the DVD colection that are adaptations from other sources)
Film adaptations--History and criticism
Motion pictures and literature
Note: Both --Film adaptations and --Film and video adaptations may be subheadings under types of literature, authors, and individual works:
American literature--Film adaptations
Short stories, American--Film and video adaptations
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Film adaptations
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Film and video adaptations
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Film and video adaptations
Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849--Film and video adaptations
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940--Film adaptations
King, Stephen, 1947---Film adaptations
Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848. Wuthering Heights--Film adaptations
Motion Pictures and Film Criticism:
Film criticism
Motion pictures
Motion pictures--History
Motion pictures--Philosophy
Motion pictures--Social aspects
Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States
Motion pictures--Moral and ethical aspects
Motion pictures--Social aspects
Motion pictures--United States
Motion pictures--United States--History
Motion pictures--United States--History and criticism
Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States
Motion pictures--United States
Motion pictures--United States--History
Motion pictures--United States--History and criticism
Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States
Note: Almost any subject can have "in motion pictures" added to it:
Men in motion pictures
Men in motion pictures
Women in motion pictures
African Americans in motion pictures
Asian Americans in motion pictures
Indians in motion pictures
Asian Americans in motion pictures
Indians in motion pictures
Homosexuality in motion pictures
Sex in motion pictures
Supernatural in motion pictures
Supernatural in motion pictures
Violence in motion pictures
Film genres
Film genres
Comedy films--History and criticism
Detective and mystery films--United States--History and criticism
Horror films--History and criticism
Science fiction films--History and criticism
War films--History and criticism
Western films--History and criticism
People creatively involved in film-making may have their own Subject Heading:
People creatively involved in film-making may have their own Subject Heading:
Disney, Walt, 1901-1966--Criticism and interpretation
Spielberg, Steven, 1946---Criticism and interpretation
Eastwood, Clint, 1930---Criticism and interpretation
Scorsese, Martin--Criticism and interpretation
Burton, Tim, 1958---Criticism and interpretation
Lee, Ang, 1954-
Fincher, David--Criticism and interpretation
Individual films may have their own Subject Heading:
Citizen Kane (Motion picture)
2001, a space odyssey (Motion picture)
Scorsese, Martin--Criticism and interpretation
Burton, Tim, 1958---Criticism and interpretation
Lee, Ang, 1954-
Fincher, David--Criticism and interpretation
Individual films may have their own Subject Heading:
Citizen Kane (Motion picture)
2001, a space odyssey (Motion picture)
Titanic (Motion picture : 1997)
Lord of the Rings films--History and criticism
Brokeback Mountain (Motion picture)
Short Stories and Fiction:
Short story
Short stories, American--History and criticism
Short stories, English--History and criticism
Fiction--20th century--History and criticism
Fiction--History and criticism
American literature--History and criticism
American literature--20th century--History and criticism
American literature--Asian American authors--History and criticism
For individual authors, try a Subject search on the name and look especially for the subheading --Criticism and interpretation.
Dubus, Andre, 1936-1999*
*At the present time (10/02/14) an ebrary book on Dubus is not showing up in the IC catalog. Here is a direct link to Conversations with Andre Dubus.
Carver, Raymond, 1938-1988--Criticism and interpretation
Proulx, Annie--Criticism and interpretation
Creativity and Collaboration:
Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Artistic collaboration
Authorship
Authorship--Collaboration
Authorship--Psychological aspects
Fiction--Authorship
Fiction--Technique
Auteur theory (Motion pictures)
Creative writing
Plots (Drama, novel, etc.)
Motion pictures--Plots, themes, etc.
Narration (Rhetoric)
Point of view (Literature)
Brokeback Mountain (Motion picture)
Short Stories and Fiction:
Short story
Short stories, American--History and criticism
Short stories, English--History and criticism
Fiction--20th century--History and criticism
Fiction--History and criticism
American literature--History and criticism
American literature--20th century--History and criticism
American literature--Asian American authors--History and criticism
For individual authors, try a Subject search on the name and look especially for the subheading --Criticism and interpretation.
Dubus, Andre, 1936-1999*
*At the present time (10/02/14) an ebrary book on Dubus is not showing up in the IC catalog. Here is a direct link to Conversations with Andre Dubus.
Carver, Raymond, 1938-1988--Criticism and interpretation
Proulx, Annie--Criticism and interpretation
Creativity and Collaboration:
Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Artistic collaboration
Authorship
Authorship--Collaboration
Authorship--Psychological aspects
Fiction--Authorship
Fiction--Technique
Auteur theory (Motion pictures)
Creative writing
Plots (Drama, novel, etc.)
Motion pictures--Plots, themes, etc.
Narration (Rhetoric)
Point of view (Literature)
(log in with IC e-mail name/password)
General OneFile : is the most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. For researching either a movie or short story I recommend switching from the default Subject search to "Advanced Search" where, if you open the drop-down menu to the right of "Keyword," you'll find a "Name of Work" option. Choose this and enter the title of the movie or story--and be alert to the auto-fill options that become available as you type. Searchinjg "Name of Work" allows you to run a Subject-type search on a movie or story, retrieving articles that are actually about the work and don't just mention it in passing.
You may also want to use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better). Among the available Subject Headings here: Movie Adaptations, Film Scripts, Screenwriting, Creative Writing, and Short Stories.
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect: "Analysis," "Economic aspects," "Ethical aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "History," Methods," "Psychological aspects," "Social aspects," and "Statistics," to name only a few.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results.
ProQuest Research Library : is another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available. Subect searching can be a more efficient way to search than with only Keywords, since it guarantees that the articles retrieved actually be about the Subject--not just use a particular word. Among the Subject Headings available here: Film Adaptations, Scripts, Screen Plays, Short Stories, and Motion Pictures.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), "Document Feature" (including Photographs, Illustrations), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
User Advisory: ProQuest is fussy about entering Subject searches in the designated search slot. If your subject is a person, enter the name--last name first--in the "Person" slot; if a named group of any kind--Microsoft, the Catholic Church, Radiohead, the New York Mets--enter it in "Co/Org"; if a place enter it in "Location."
Academic Search Premier Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
General OneFile : is the most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. For researching either a movie or short story I recommend switching from the default Subject search to "Advanced Search" where, if you open the drop-down menu to the right of "Keyword," you'll find a "Name of Work" option. Choose this and enter the title of the movie or story--and be alert to the auto-fill options that become available as you type. Searchinjg "Name of Work" allows you to run a Subject-type search on a movie or story, retrieving articles that are actually about the work and don't just mention it in passing.
You may also want to use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better). Among the available Subject Headings here: Movie Adaptations, Film Scripts, Screenwriting, Creative Writing, and Short Stories.
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect: "Analysis," "Economic aspects," "Ethical aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "History," Methods," "Psychological aspects," "Social aspects," and "Statistics," to name only a few.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results.
ProQuest Research Library : is another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available. Subect searching can be a more efficient way to search than with only Keywords, since it guarantees that the articles retrieved actually be about the Subject--not just use a particular word. Among the Subject Headings available here: Film Adaptations, Scripts, Screen Plays, Short Stories, and Motion Pictures.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), "Document Feature" (including Photographs, Illustrations), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
User Advisory: ProQuest is fussy about entering Subject searches in the designated search slot. If your subject is a person, enter the name--last name first--in the "Person" slot; if a named group of any kind--Microsoft, the Catholic Church, Radiohead, the New York Mets--enter it in "Co/Org"; if a place enter it in "Location."
Academic Search Premier Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
A good initial strategy in this database is to search a likely topic in the Subject Terms and when you find it “explode” the term by double clicking it--this brings up a list of related Subject terms. You can check as many terms as you like before "adding" them to your search by AND-ing or OR-ing them together. Among the Subject Terms available here: Film Adaptations, Literature--adaptations, Screenplays, Motion Picture Authorship, Short Story (literary form), and Short Story (literary form)--History & criticism.
User Advisory: For any retrieved set of articles, there will be a box displayed on the left that will limit the articles to “Scholarly” journals—just check the box and click the “Update Results” button below.
Project Muse : 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals. Reset the default "Books and Journals" to "Journals"--we don't have access to the full text of the books--and try a search on Film Adaptation or Benjamin Button.
MLA International Bibliography provides the most complete and fully indexed coverage of articles and books on modern literatures, linguistics, folklore, rhetoric, and composition from 1925 to the present. There is ample full text provided by ProQuest, as well as links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse. Full text from other IC databases is also readily available via the "GetIt" links below article citations.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
If you set up a free "My Research" account with Proquest (top right), you can save all the articles you check, all the searches you want to remember, and set up e-mail or RSS notification for any new articles that match your search terms.
LexisNexis Academic : The News section of this database is our largest archive of full-text newspaper articles, both national and international. Consequently, this provides a good source for newspaper reviews of books and movies, as well as interviews with directors and writers. Go to "Search by Content Type" and choose "All News." Remember to put book and movie titles and personal names in quotation marks to signal that the words must be searched together in an exact order.
Literary Reference Center : The emphasis here is on articles from a wide range of reference resources, including Magill's Survey of American Literature, Cyclopedia of World Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Masterplots, etc. There is also access to the Critical Insights book series published by Salem Press, each volume dedicated to a single author or a single work. Both the reference works and the Critical Insights series provide very basic biography and interpretation, but these are supplemented by selected scholarly articles.
The simplest approach may be to enter a single author or a particular work in the "Most Studied Authors" or "Most Studied Works" sections of the "Browse" box. An Author or Work record will offer you "Related Information" categories such as "Literary Criticism," "Reference Books," "Biography," and "Plot Summaries."
In addition to literary criticism and reference, there is a wide range of full-text literary works supplied (mostly) by Project Gutenberg.
Project Muse : 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals. Reset the default "Books and Journals" to "Journals"--we don't have access to the full text of the books--and try a search on Film Adaptation or Benjamin Button.
MLA International Bibliography provides the most complete and fully indexed coverage of articles and books on modern literatures, linguistics, folklore, rhetoric, and composition from 1925 to the present. There is ample full text provided by ProQuest, as well as links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse. Full text from other IC databases is also readily available via the "GetIt" links below article citations.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
If you set up a free "My Research" account with Proquest (top right), you can save all the articles you check, all the searches you want to remember, and set up e-mail or RSS notification for any new articles that match your search terms.
LexisNexis Academic : The News section of this database is our largest archive of full-text newspaper articles, both national and international. Consequently, this provides a good source for newspaper reviews of books and movies, as well as interviews with directors and writers. Go to "Search by Content Type" and choose "All News." Remember to put book and movie titles and personal names in quotation marks to signal that the words must be searched together in an exact order.
Literary Reference Center : The emphasis here is on articles from a wide range of reference resources, including Magill's Survey of American Literature, Cyclopedia of World Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Masterplots, etc. There is also access to the Critical Insights book series published by Salem Press, each volume dedicated to a single author or a single work. Both the reference works and the Critical Insights series provide very basic biography and interpretation, but these are supplemented by selected scholarly articles.
The simplest approach may be to enter a single author or a particular work in the "Most Studied Authors" or "Most Studied Works" sections of the "Browse" box. An Author or Work record will offer you "Related Information" categories such as "Literary Criticism," "Reference Books," "Biography," and "Plot Summaries."
In addition to literary criticism and reference, there is a wide range of full-text literary works supplied (mostly) by Project Gutenberg.
Few databases offer 100% full text. Most retrieve a mix of full text articles and article "citations"--article title, author(s), publication info, and usually an "abstract" or one-prargraph summary of the content. When a citation makes you want the full text, look below it for this icon:
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
- "GETIT" will usually find the full text in another database and open it in a new window.
- If none of our databases can access the full text but we have a print subsciption to the journal, "GETIT" will retrieve the Library catalog record for the journal so that you can see if the date of the article falls within the date range we have on hand.
- If full text is not available from any database or from a print subsciption, "GETIT" will provide a link to the IC Library's Interlibrary Loan. Log in (same as your IC e-mail)--and set up your account if you've never used it before. "GETIT" will have populated the article request form with all the necessary information and you simply submit the request elecrtonically. Most articles are supplied as digital files and will be sent to you via e-mail when they arrive.
- Ebrary
- Citation
- Interlibrary Loan
- Plagiarism Tutorial
Log-in required
(IC e-mail name/password)
(IC e-mail name/password)
- American Film Scripts Online is a full text online archive of over 1,000 film scripts from 1903 to 2006. Some of these are film adaptations of literary sources. The collection is particularly strong in the decades of the 30s, 40s, and 50s.
Log-in required
(IC e-mail name/password)
(IC e-mail name/password)
- Authorship in Film Adaptation
- Analyzing Literature-to-Film Adaptations : A Novelist's Exploration and Guide
- Film Adaptation and Its Discontents : From Gone with the Wind to the Passion of the Christ
- From Film Adaptation to Post-Celluloid Adaptation : Rethinking the Transition of Popular Narratives and Characters Across Old and New Media
- Contemporary Cinema, Volume 2 : Books in Motion. Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship
- Analysing the Screenplay
- Poetics for Screenwriters
- Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television : Script Culture and the American Screenplay
- Movies That Move Us : Screenwriting and the Power of the Protagonist's Journey
- Screen Writings : Genres, Classics, and Aesthetics
- Short Story : An Introduction
- Narrative Progression in the Short Story : A Corpus Stylistic Approach
- Screen Adaptation and the Question of Fidelity: A 2013 editorial in Cineaste (log-in required).
- "It's not quite what I had ¡n mind'*: Adaptation, Faithfulness, and Interpretation": This very scholarly article from the Journal of Literary Semantics is not for the faint of heart, but its application of concepts from literary translation to film adaptation may reward the struggle to read it (log-in required).
- Turn Off the Lights as You Leave: Altman and His Short Cuts with Carver This is about Robert Altman's 1993 adaptation of several Carver stories in the film Short Cuts. Altman didn't use "Why Don't you Dance," but the discussion of film adaptation of Carver stories might still be useful.
- Screenwriters Federation of America: Professional organization, but there's some content here--especially under "Writing."
- Reflections on Adaptation: "OnWritingONLINE gathered Israel Horovitz (Sunshine), Doug McGrath (Emma), Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (A Room with a View), Richard Wesley (Native Son), and moderator Richard Vetere (The Third Miracle) to explore the challenges of transforming material created for another medium into a successful and enduring motion picture." Videos.
- Different Modes of Adaptation: This is a module from a film course at the University of Minnesota. If you keep scrolling down, there are some interesting lists and links here.
- Adaptation: From Novel to Film: A discussion of the subject from the PBS Masterpiece Theatre series. The recommended student activities at the end offer some helpful exercises.
- Movie Adaptation Database: from UC Berkeley, this is useful for the ability to browse by Author or Title on the right.
- "50 Best Book to Movie Adaptations": One writer's opinion at the Total Film Web site, but the choices might start you thinking.
- "Why did they ever make a movie of…?: 15 unsuccessful adaptations of “unadaptable” books": A little more provocation, if you happen to disagree with the authors' selections and their reasons.
- "Movies From Books": short essay by David Brody from a recent (08/07/2012) New Yorker.
- Internet Movie Database: If you open the "Full Cast and Crew" link for any film you will find "Writing Credits" just above the full cast and links for the screen writers and any original author of the source material.
MLA is the citation style used by most disciplines in the Humanities. The guides below use the latest 2008/9 standards.
