A Modern Context Within Jane Austen s Clueless

Composers often appropriate classic texts in order to put significant stories and social themes into a new context. Amy Heckerling exemplifies this notion as she brings forth the social issues and concerns of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ into a modern context within her 20th century film, ‘Clueless’. Heckerling has transformed ‘Emma’ through her use of modern language, setting, targeted audience and props in ‘Clueless’ illustrating how Austen’s ideals and social themes are still relevant and affective to a contemporary audience. Heckerling investigates the dichotomy and similarities of the two contexts, by reinvigorating themes like the role of women in a patriarchal society, the role of marriage in society, the nature of true friendship and the universality and timelessness of folly. The role of women in a patriarchal society is one of the most heavily enforced themes in ‘Emma’ and ‘Clueless’. Austen places great emphasis on how the dominance of men over women was of great importance within the patriarchal social structure of the regency period. Heckerling reimagines ‘Emma’, to show the ways that this perspective has been altered over the next century. Emma and Cher are both products of their own patriarchal, class-driven societies; they are affluent and repressed as women, which leads Emma Woodhouse- the heroine of Jane Austen’s â€Å"Emma†- to turn to charity and match-making to fill in her time along with domestic chores, painting and playing the piano, and Cher Horowitz - theShow MoreRelatedFilm Techniques, By And Amy Heckerling s Postmodern American Film, Clueless ( 1995 )2279 Words   |  10 Pagesinnovative insights that appeal to modern consciousness entails the adaption of a text to a contemporary con textual environment, and by comparing both Jane Austen’s Regency Era novel, Emma (1815), and Amy Heckerling’s postmodern American film, Clueless (1995), it is evident that the film has been re-appropriated in such a way that Austen’s voice is still heard today, while simultaneously projecting Heckerling’s views on present-day society. While both Emma and Clueless fall under similar timeless themesRead MoreClueless a Transformation of Emma4584 Words   |  19 Pagescomposer of Clueless use film techniques to transform the social, historical and environmental context of Jane Austen’s Emma to the modern context of Clueless? Amy Heckerling’s Clueless involves a storyline, which closely follows the text of Jane Austen’s novel Emma. However, there are some key points of difference in the transformation that has taken place. This is due to the individual context of the nineteenth century prose text and that of the modern appropriated film text. The context can beRead MoreClueless Reflection1751 Words   |  8 PagesThis film was originally a classic Jane Austen novel called Emma, which is often studied in a literature classroom. Emma was first published in 1815 . The novel based in 1810s, is about 22 year old Emma Woodhouse, who imagines herself to be naturally-gifted at conjuring love matches, who then exposes herself to a world of conflict, miscommunication, stereotyping, and perception. This classic novel was been retold in a 1990s romantic comedy film, Clueless. Clueless is an American coming of age comedy