Hunt the author: Vadim, Zola and La Curée

Griffiths, Katherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3335-7092 2005. Hunt the author: Vadim, Zola and La Curée. Studies in European Cinema 2 (1) , pp. 7-17. 10.1386/seci.2.1.7/1

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Abstract

In spite of their differences, Émile Zola's 1872 novel La Curée and Roger Vadim's 1965 cinematic adaptation, La Curée/The Game is Over, are linked by images of hunting. This article asks: What is the quarry being chased in both works? It comes to the conclusion that it is authorship itself. Vadim has been criticized for his alterations to Zola's ‘original’ text. However, it is clear upon inspection that it is precisely such a notion of an ‘original’ text or a founding moment of authorship that Zola undermines in his novel. On an intratextual level, Zola dramatizes the lack of authorship of his characters. He extends this dramatization to incorporate his own authorship, demonstrating that far from constituting a moment of original textual presence, his novel is rather a palimpsest, an adaptation of earlier adaptations. By incorporating the images of ever earlier sources, Vadim and Zola enter into a dialogue on the nature of authorship itself, demonstrating that the author may be hunted, but s/he will never truly be caught.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Modern Languages
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures
Uncontrolled Keywords:	La Curée; The Game is Over; Vadim; Zola; adaptation; authorship
Publisher:	Intellect
ISSN:	1741-1548
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2022 08:48
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/55324

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