Novels that deal with film: Any suggestions?

[EngLim]

Hey everyone,

I am a PhD student from Denmark, and I am working on my project that deals with ekphrasis (verbal representation of visual representations, or descriptions of visual art in literature) in contemporary prose.

I am currently working with Adam Thorpe's novel "Still" in which the protagonist tries to create a silent film only through the use of text, no images. Also, he very thoroughly describes a "real" movie while watching it. My conjecture is that descriptions of film is a modern form of ekphrasis with images in flux.

My question: I need suggestions for texts that deal with film/tv/moving images/media in a similar way - novels or short stories that somehow describe or use moving pictures as a narrative strategy? Even if the references/descriptions are just short passages - and preferably texts by contemporary British and American authors.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. If I could I would read every book in the world, but unfortunately I don't have the time, so that's why I'm asking you.

Thanks,

Lise

[mortalterror]

Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust is a short novel who's protagonist is a painter for a Hollywood studio. The book begins with the collapse of a stage where many people are hurt. The painter Tod Hackett stands on the sidelines observing. It ends with a riot by a crowd on the opening night of a big picture, and Tod himself is swept along in the crush, where he hallucinates that he's become a part of a painting he's working on.

There are numerous film scenes that inform the work. For instance, a silent burlesque film is shown at a whorehouse in chapter 5. Many of the characters are actors. Much of the book is an interchange between reality and art. It might be the sort of thing you are looking for.