BiblioVault - Books by Browning, Mark

David Cronenberg

Author or Filmmaker?

Mark Browning

Intellect Books, 2007

For more than thirty years, David Cronenberg has made independent films such as Scanners and A History of Violence which aim to disturb, surprise, and challenge audiences. He has also repeatedly drawn on literary fiction for inspiration, adapting themes from authors like William Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, and Patrick McGrath for the big screen; David Cronenberg: Author or Filmmaker? is the first book to explore how underground and mainstream fiction have influenced—and can help illuminate—his labyrinthine films.

Film scholar Mark Browning examines Cronenberg’s literary aesthetic not only in relation to his films’ obvious source material, but by comparing his movies to the writings of Vladimir Nabokov, Angela Carter, and Bret Easton Ellis. This groundbreaking volume addresses Cronenberg’s narrative structures and his unique conception of auteurism, as well as his films’ shocking psychological frameworks, all in the broader context of film adaptation studies. David Cronenberg is an essential read for anyone interested in the symbiotic relationship between literature and filmmaking.

“David Cronenberg is a work that attempts to illuminate and unravel the connection between the great Canadian auteur and his literary influences.”—Film Snob Weekly

“David Cronenberg is an essential read for anyone interested in the symbiotic relationship between literature and filmmaking.”—Video Canada

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Haunted By Waters

Fly Fishing In North American Literature

Mark Browning

Ohio University Press, 1998

Four essential questions: Why does one fish? How should one properly fish? What relations are created in fishing? And what effects does fishing have on the future? Haunted by Waters is a self-examination by the author as he constructs his own narrative and tries to answer these questions for himself. But it is also a thorough examination of the answers he uncovers in the course of reading what's been written on the subject.

As his own story unfolds, Mark Browning analyzes angling literature from the Bible to Norman Maclean, always bringing his inquiry back to the same source: the enigma of this sport.

Haunted by Waters is an exploration of the apparent compulsion of those who fish not only to read about the sport, but to write about it as well. Mark Browning's personal account as a fly fisherman and his perspective as a critic make him uniquely qualified to navigate these waters.

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Stephen King on the Big Screen

Mark Browning

Intellect Books, 2009

The Shining. Carrie. Misery. These are just a few of the film adaptations that have been made from the terrifying and eerie work of novelist and short story writer Stephen King. It is nearly impossible to think of another author who has inspired so many, and such diverse filmmakers—yet there has never before been a work by a film specialist that focused solely on Stephen King. Mark Browning, in Stephen King on the Big Screen, takes a film-by-film approach to exploring why some adaptations of King’s work are more successful than others. Browning discusses every single film adaptation given a global cinematic release—including films by such well-known directors as Stanley Kubrick, George A. Romero, and David Cronenberg. His is the first book to consider in detail Sleepwalkers, Dreamcatcher, and 1408 as well as the much-neglected portmanteau films and touchstones like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. In a highly readable and engaging style, Browning examines how different film directors have interpreted and translated the original literary texts into a new medium. Throughout, he reveals the elements of style and approach that have helped make King one of the world’s best-selling authors. This entertaining and accessible guide to the complete corpus of Stephen King films is a must-have for fans of his fiction and of the many directors who have sought to capture his macabre stories and bizarre characters in cinematic form.

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Stephen King on the Small Screen

Mark Browning

Intellect Books, 2011

In this follow up to Stephen King on the Big Screen, Mark Browning turns his critical eye to the much-neglected subject of the best-selling author’s work in television, examining what it is about King’s fiction that makes it particularly suitable for the small screen.

By focusing on this body of work, from the highly successful The Stand and The Night Flier to the lesser-known TV films Storm of the Century, Rose Red, Kingdom Hospital, and the 2004 remake of Salem’s Lot, Browning is able to articulate how these adaptations work and, in turn, suggest new ways of viewing them. This book is the first written by a film specialist to consider King’s television work in its own right, and it rejects previous attempts to make the films and books fit rigid thematic categories. Browning examines what makes a written or visual text successful at evoking fear on a case-by-case basis, in a highly readable and engaging way. He also considers the relationship between the big and small screen. Why, for instance, are some TV versions more effective than movie adaptations and vice versa? In the process, Stephen King on the Small Screen is able to shed new light on what it is that makes King’s novels so successful and reveal the elements of style and approach that have helped make King one of the world’s best-selling authors.

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