Cultural Studies of LEGO by Rebecca C. Hains & Sharon R. Mazzarella

Author:Rebecca C. Hains & Sharon R. Mazzarella
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030326647
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

8. Toyetics and Novelizations: Bringing The LEGO Movie to the Page

Joyce Goggin1

(1)University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Joyce Goggin

Email: [email protected]

Novelizations get short shrift in scholarly work and are largely ignored in both literature and film studies, where one might expect them to have received at least passing attention. Various factors influence the lack of interest in novelizations, including their medial status as transcriptions of film versions of what were initially text-based narrative properties, such as novels, plays or scripts. Indeed, research on novelizations has lagged behind even in adaptation studies, a rapidly developing quasi-discipline that addresses narrative transposition from one medium or platform to the others, as well as the logic and processes through which such transpositions operate. And while adaptation studies continue to widen the scope from text adapted into film to include remakes, prequels and sequels, as well as adaptations from comic books and graphic novels to video games and even toys, novelizations continue to receive little attention.

This chapter is intended as a serious contribution to the study of novelizations as well as to LEGO studies, albeit from the perspective of somewhat non-serious objects. In what follows, I will discuss novelizations of 2014’s The LEGO Movie (TLM) and 2017’s The LEGO Batman Movie (LBM), as well as the industry’s history, authors and audiences. By exploring the phenomenon of novelizing LEGO movies from various critical perspectives, my goal is to shed light on a cluster of concerns, such as the role that the cultural capital of novelizations plays in their reception; the role of gender in the writing of novelizations; the pedagogical aims of these texts; and some of the reasons why both authors and readers might be attracted to textual versions of the LEGO movies.

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