closet drama
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a large group. The contrast between closet drama and classic "stage" dramas dates back to the late eighteenth century. Al ...
, a closet screenplay is a screenplay intended not to be produced/performed but instead to be read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group.
While any published, or simply read, screenplay might reasonably be considered a "closet screenplay," 20th- and 21st-century Japanese and Western writers have created a handful of film scripts expressly intended to be read rather than produced/performed. This class of
prose fiction
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
written in screenplay form is perhaps the most precise example of the closet screenplay.
This genre is sometimes referred to using a romanized
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words
Critical interest
Brian Norman, an
assistant professor
Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree
A docto ...
at
Idaho State University
, mottoeng = "The truth will set you free"
, established =
, former_names = Academy of Idaho(1901–1915)Idaho Technical Institute(1915–1927) University of Idaho—Southern Branch(1927–1947)Idaho Stat ...
, refers to James Baldwin's '' One Day When I Was Lost'' as a "closet screenplay." The screenplay was written for a project to produce a movie, but the project suffered a setback. After that, the script was published as a
literary work
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
.
Lee Jamieson's article "The Lost Prophet of Cinema: The Film Theory of Antonin Artaud" discusses Artaud's three Lesescenarios (listed below) in the context of his "revolutionary film theory." And in ''French Film Theory and Criticism: 1907–1939'', Richard Abel lists the following critical treatments of several of the Surrealist "published scenario texts" (36) listed in the example section below:
* J. H. Matthews, ''Surrealism and Film'' (U of Michigan P, 1971), 51–76.
* Steven Kovács, ''From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema'' (Associated UP, 1980), 59–61, 157–76.
* Linda Williams, ''Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film'' (U of Illinois P, 1981), 25–33.
* Richard Abel, "Exploring the Discursive Field of the Surrealist Film Scenario Text," ''Dada/Surrealism'' 15 (1986): 58–71.
Finally, in his article "Production's 'dubious advantage': Lesescenarios, closet drama, and the (screen)writer's riposte," Quimby Melton outlines the history of the Lesescenario form, situates the genre in a historical literary context by drawing parallels between it and Western "
closet drama
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a large group. The contrast between closet drama and classic "stage" dramas dates back to the late eighteenth century. Al ...
," and argues we might consider certain instances of closet drama proto-screenplays. The article also argues that writing these sorts of "readerly" performance texts is essentially an act of subversion whereby (screen)writers work in a performance mode only to intentionally bypass production and, thereby, (re)assert narrative representation's textual primacy and (re)claim a direct (re)connection with their audience.
The comments section of Melton's article also has an ongoing discussion of the Lesescenario cano The list of examples below is based on "Production's 'dubious advantage,'" that discussion, and Melton's "Lesecenario Bibliography" at Google Docs. The bibliography contains additional critical works concerned with individual Lesescenarios and/or the canon at large.
Man's Fate
''Man's Fate'' (French: ''La Condition humaine'', "The Human Condition") is a 1933 novel written by André Malraux about the failed communist insurrection in Shanghai in 1927, and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associa ...
Shadow
A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, ...
'', and ''
Temptation
Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...
'' (by
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
, art name , was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He committed suicide at the age of ...
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Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...
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Haruhiko Arai
is a Japanese screenwriter. He is also a publisher and an editor of the ''Eiga Geijutsu'' magazine and a professor of the Japan Institute of the Moving Image.
Career
Arai won the Mainichi Film Award for best screenplay for the film '' W's Traged ...
The Master of Ballantrae
''The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale'' is an 1889 novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, focusing upon the conflict between two brothers, Scottish noblemen whose family is torn apart by the Jacobite rising of 1745. He w ...
'' (after the
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
Flights
Flight is the process by which an object moves without direct support from a surface.
Flight may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Flight'' (1929 film), an American adventure film
* ''Flight'' (2009 film), a South Korean d ...
Marcel Aymé
Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist and playwright, who also wrote screenplays and works for children.
Biography
Marcel André Aymé was born in Joigny, in the Burgundy region of France, the youngest of si ...
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*''The Reader from Ames'' (by André Berge)
*''The Initiation (A Story of Adventure)'' (by François Berge)
*''The Second Departure'' (by Maurice Betz)
*''Le Dernier Empereur'' (by Jean-Richard Bloch)
*''Beautiful Weddings in the Street: A New Scenario on a Banal Theme'' (by
Jacques Bonjean
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...
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The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
''The Last Words of Dutch Schultz'' is a closet screenplay by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, first published in 1970.
Based upon the life (or, to be more precise, the death) of 1930s Germany, German-Jewish-American gangster Dutch Sc ...
'' (by
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the '' Pr ...
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*''The End of the World, Filmed by the Angel of Notre Dame'' and ''Atlantis'' (by
Blaise Cendrars
Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European mo ...
*"The Reefs of Love," ''Midnight at Noon: A Study of Marvelous Modernity,'' and "There Are Bugs in the Roast Pork" (by
Robert Desnos
Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day.
Biography
Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...
*"Eyes Wide Open" ("Paupières mûres"), "Horizontal Bar," and "Mtasipoj" (by
Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane () or Benjamin Fundoianu (; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; November 14, 1898 – October 2, 1944) was a Romanian and France, French poet, critic and Existentia ...
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*''News'' (by
Paul Gilson
Paul Gilson (Brussels, 15 June 1865 – Brussels, 3 April 1942) was a Belgian musician and composer.
Biography
Paul Gilson was born in Brussels. In 1866, his family moved to Ruisbroek in the Belgian province of Brabant. There he studied the ...
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
Ape and Essence
''Ape and Essence'' (1948) is a novel by Aldous Huxley, published by Chatto & Windus in the UK and Harper & Brothers in the US. It is set in a dystopia, as is ''Brave New World'', Huxley's more famous work. It is largely a satire of the rise ...
'' (part II: "The Script") (by
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxle ...
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Negrophobia
Negrophobia (also termed anti-Blackness) is characterized by a fear, hatred or extreme aversion to Black people and Black culture worldwide. Caused amongst other factors by racism and traumatic events and circumstances, symptoms of this phobia ...
The True Story of Ah Q
''The True Story of Ah Q'' is an episodic novella written by Lu Xun, first published as a serial between December 4, 1921 and February 12, 1922. It was later placed in his first short story collection ''Call to Arms'' (吶喊, Nàhǎn) in 1923 ...
Lu Xun
Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. ...
Leonid Leonov
Leonid Maximovich Leonov (russian: Леони́д Макси́мович Лео́нов; — 8 August 1994) was a Soviet novelist and playwright of socialist realism. His works have been compared with Dostoyevsky's deep psychological torment.
...
Joris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel '' À rebour ...
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*"L'Amazon des cimetières" (by
Georges Neveux Georges Neveux (1900–1982) was a French dramatist and poet.
Neveux's first notable work was the play ''Juliette ou la clé des songes (Juliet or the key to dreams)'', written in 1927 and produced in 1930. It became the basis of Theodor Schae ...
*''Donogoo-Tonka, or The Miracles of Science'' (by
Jules Romains
Jules Romains (born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule; 26 August 1885 – 14 August 1972) was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement. His works include the play '' Knock ou le Triomphe de la médecine'', and a cycle ...
*''The Evening Murder'' (by Haruo Sato) "A Thought on Junichiro Tanizaki's Whispering Moon - from aspects of writing/reading a film -" by Mioko Sato （
Doshisha
, mottoeng = Truth shall make you free
, tagline =
, established = Founded 1875,Chartered 1920
, vision =
, type = Private
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, calendar =
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National Literature Vol.83 ）
*''Don't Put a Dog Outside: A Film without Words'' (by Claude Sernet)
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*''Whispering Moon,'' (by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki)
*''The Unconquerable People,'' ''The Doctor and the Devils,'' ''Rebecca's Daughters,'' ''The Beach of Falesá,'' ''Twenty Years A-Growing,'' ''Suffer Little Children,'' ''The Shadowless Man,'' and ''Me and My Bike'' (by Dylan Thomas)
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Reality Is What You Can Get Away With
''Reality is What You Can Get Away With'' is an illustrated screenplay by Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-des ...
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
* Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, ''Asakusa Park'' (Trans. Seiji M. Lippit. nycBigCityLit.com, February 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20080820223841/http://www.nycbigcitylit.com/feb2004/contents/longerdraughts.html 0 May 2009.
* Antonin Artaud, ''Les Dix-huits seconds'' (Google Books, n.d. https://books.google.com/books?id=hdhR9dmPah0C&lpg=PP1&dq=antonin%20artaud%20selected&pg=PA113#v=onepage&q&f=false January 2011.
* Louis-Ferdinand Céline, ''Secrets dans l'îsle'' (Trans. Mark Spitzer. Cipher Journal, n.d. http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/celine.html 0 May 2009.
* Seiji M. Lippit, “The Disintegrating Machinery of the Modern: Akutagawa Ryunosuke's Late Writings” (''Journal of Asian Studies 58:1 ebruary 1999 27-50).
* {{cite news, first=David, last=Peace, title=Last words, work=
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, date=2007-09-08, url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview13, access-date=2009-05-10
* Hiroo Yamagata ( esescenarioTranslator, ''Negrophobia'' and ''The Last Words of Dutch Schultz''), Interview (SCRIPTjr.nl 1.2.
une 2010
Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the nort ...
1 January 2011
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
, often referred to as TUFS, is a specialist research university in Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan.
TUFS is primarily devoted to foreign language, international affairs and foreign studies. It also features an Asia-African institution.
History
The Uni ...