| Richard Hooker (1924-1997) is an American writer, his work MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) was published in 1968, and it is regarded as the most humorous and statistic one among war novels. The novel tells the stories happened in the 4077th mobile army surgical hospital of America during the Korean War, aiming to insinuate the Vietnam War though the Korean War, and expose the cruelty of war by black humor. In 1970, it was adapted into a film of the same name by famous American director Robert Altman, which received five Oscar Academy Award nominations and got the Best Film Award at Cannes Film Festival. The film MASH is Altman’s famous early work with features of "New Hollywood" film. This thesis will focus on the comparative study between the novel MASH and its film adaptation, it aims to explore the relationship among Hooker’s novel, Altman’s film and the readers by analyzing the features of black humor in the novel, the characteristics of "New Hollywood" in the film, comparing the similarities and differences, and then find out the value of MASH adaptation.There are 6 chapters in this thesis. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the author and the novel, the director and the film. It also includes the literature review, writing purpose, significance and the methodology. In chapter 2, the features of Hooker’s MASH as a black humor novel are illustrated in terms of the broken plots, the anti-heroes and parody etc, which aims to disclose the absurdity of war and express the views of anti-authority and anti-bureaucracy. Chapter 3 mainly focuses on the analysis of Altman’s MASH as a "New Hollywood" film, in terms of nonlinear narration structure, juxtaposition of reality and absurdity. In chapter 4, the similarities and differences between the novel and film are probed. The similarities embody in the criticism to the war and authority, the inheritance to the black humorous style of the novel; the differences are shown in creating the new images, producing the effect of black comedy by deleting, adding and changing in characters and plots, and the weakening of religious issue. Chapter 5 expounds how the novel influences the film, the novel provides the adaptable elements, such as music and character handling, and adds the humanistic color for the film; meanwhile, it analyzes how the film helps understand the novel, the film enriches the connotative meaning for the novel, and strengthens the anti-war theme. Both the novel and the film functionally conduce to comprehend the novel for readers, and broaden their views in interpreting it further. Finally, it comes to the conclusion:On one hand, the novel MASH is a classic black humor novel, it lays the foundation for the film as for the arrangement of characters and plots, theme and style; on the other hand, the adapted MASH is a black comedy with "New Hollywood" style, it replenishes the connotative meaning for the novel, helps deepen readers’ understanding on the anti-war theme of the novel, and prompts readers to focus more on the original work.What’s more, no matter the novel MASH or the film MASH, it can invoke people to ponder over the war and to respect life. Only if there is war, the positive meaning of MASH will be long-lasting. |
