Outstanding Film References in Prime American Fiction

The author offers an impressive panorama of film references in prime American fiction showing his wide experience in the film/literature interface. The book is addressed to professionals of both disciplines and enthusiastic fans of a multifaceted cultural experience.

Barbara Kryk-Kastovsky
Professor emerita
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland;
University of Vienna, Austria


A remarkable and inspiring contribution to the question of artistic creativity in the domain of literature-film relationships in their psychological, social and cultural context. Highly recommended to students of literature and film studies.

Roman Kopytko
Professor emeritus
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland


I am delighted to engage with Henryk Hoffmann’s work. The breadth of his research and depth of his understanding is impressive and it is a delight to find that our favorite fictional characters are just as captivated and influenced by the movies as we are.

Nell Minow
Contributing Editor, rogerebert.com


If you love movies, if you love literature, Henryk Hoffmann’s book “Outstanding Film References in Prime American Fiction: From F. Scott Fitzgerald to Marisa de los Santos” will inform, delight, educate and awaken your cultural curiosity.
Do we know what influences seep into the mind and imagination of the writer? They are trying to make a developmental point as succinctly as possible. One of the ways to do that is to refer to movie stars or movie characters. This is a kind of shorthand for the writer as a way of informing the reader about this character in the story. Telling the reader more about the written character by showing who they admire or are influenced by in the context of their life on the written page.
This book illuminates how we are drawn to identify ourselves with the characters we fall in love with on the screen or, the characters we hate. Hollywood and its film stars have given writers personal symbols, real or fictional, to which can be attached their hopes and fantasies.

Maria Cooper Janis
American artist