Metamodern Spaces of Production and Network Keeping in Vanity Fair (ITV 2018)

ITV’s recent adaptation of Vanity Fair provides the perfect ground for making a metamodern assessment of the continuous relevance of Victorian literature for contemporary audiences, as well as the ability of screen adaptations to revise certain themes that can throw light on our own historical moment. It rejects the obvious irony of postmodernism to make some more subtle and contemporary relevant statements about class, hierarchy and rights, and adopts a reasoned and consistent production approach, with a more classic focus on story and characterization. Yet it is fresh and bold in its aesthetics and transforms inherently limited production resources into an advantage. As a re-sult, the Brechtian breaking of the fourth wall, to reveal the artist’s strings, co-exists with a sincere engagement with narrative and feelings, preserving thus the audience’s emotional involvement as well as a certain distance necessary for problematizing the issues from a contemporary perspective.