Pulping Fictions: Consuming Culture Across the English/Media Divide

Taking Tarantino’s dictionary definition of pulp fiction as its starting point, this work explores the unease with which film and TV adaptations of books are often greeted. It looks at a range of adaptations and authors, including Branagh’s film Henry V , Frankenstein , and the books of Angela Carter. The notion of planning in the evolution and filming of Interview with the Vampire , and the exploitation of textual/cinematic strategies in the film Orlando are examined. The BBC’s decision to film Middlemarch in Stamford is considered, and the book concludes with a defence of the charges against Tarantino that he exploits the banal and vulgar tastes of mass culture.