Book-centered films - a social doping for the reading

Abstract

The study undertakes the problem of the social, political and the theoretically applied potential of the film representation of the characters of the book and the reading in the programs for the stimulation of reading. The zone of problematic is outlined – publishers do not know well the market of the films, film producers do not know the market of the books, investigators of the book do not know the landscape of the „audiovisual reading”, while the younger generation emancipated its attitude towards films and books – absorbs them through all media platforms; makes the connection between them; criticizes, shares, encourages, has permanent expectations. The thesis, which is defended is that the symbolic and metaphorical use of the motif of the book, the reading, the publishing, the bookstore or the library in screen arts continues to resonate with the themes of knowledge and power and in the digital age, and this can be used as „social doping” for the apathetic and the erratic readers. In this article, the expression „social doping” is used to describe positive licit stimulant. The aim of the study is to explain and argue the book-centered films as multimodal tool for improving of the education in reading and the policies of reading worldwide, especially in communities with a high illiteracy rate. An empirical research on movies for the period 1898-2014 is summarized, accomplished by filmographic analytical and synthetic approach. The results are aimed at expanding the conceptual scope of policies to promote reading and creative approaches of the book production, to promote competition and collaboration between the publishing and the movie companies. Proving book-centered films as a serious and prestigious social instrument is expected to raise the awareness and the exactingness of the readers to the publishing programs and to insist on investing in business models with multiplatform representations, cross-media and transmedia of the artistic content.