Module Identifier |
TF32120 |
Module Title |
STUDIES IN LITERARY ADAPTATION |
Academic Year |
2005/2006 |
Co-ordinator |
Dr Mikel Koven |
Semester |
Intended for use in future years |
Next year offered |
N/A |
Next semester offered |
N/A |
Pre-Requisite |
TF10220 |
Assessment |
Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
Semester Assessment | Essay 2,500 words | 40% |
Semester Assessment | Essay 2,500 | 60% |
Supplementary Assessment | Assessed work will be resubmitted on a different topic | |
|
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
-
Critically assess the variety and often conflicting analytical paradigms which characterize the study of literary adaptations;
-
Critically assess who a literary adaptation film is addressing, and discuss how that address is constructed;
-
Critically assess differing approaches to genre in the adapted film;
-
Critically assess the different perspectives between a literary notion of the author, and the 'author' within film studies.
Brief description
This module is an in-depth case studioes module which wuill explore the film and television adaptations of a single author (or series of authors). From year to year the studied author(s) may change but regardless of which author(s) are bein studied we will explore the vaiety of discourses and controversies surrounding the issue of film adaptations of work from other literary media; assess the address to different kinds of audience for the chosen author's works and the movies based on them (racial, cultural, class and gender-based, sexual orientation); apply the specialized film studies paradigms of genre to these films in the hopes of problematising the taxonomies of literary genres; and critically assess the notion of who is the 'author' of these films: the literary writer or the film director.
Content
Lecture/Seminar topics and films (subject to change):
Due to the nature of this module, wherein the topic can change from year to year, the following outline is merely an example of how it could be taught (using an example of Agatha Christie adaptations). Topics and films would obviously change depending on the author(s) studied.
Section 1: Issues of Accuracy: The Filmic Text (Murder on the Orient Express); The Quality Text (episodes of Poirot); Concerning the Audience (episode of Miss Marple); The Analogy Text (Sparkling Cyanide); Section 2 : Beyond Accuracy: Stars vs. Actors (Death on the Nile); Genre (Five Dolls for an August Moon); Cultural Contexts (The Auspicious Hour); Problematising Authorship (Murder She Said); Case Study [where several versions of the same source text are examined] (And Then There Were None); and Meta-textual debates: the author as sign (Agatha).
Module Skills
Reading Lists
Books
The Bibliography will be largely determined by the author(s) studied, including expectations that the students will read the source literature.
Bulestone, G (2001) Novels into Film
John Hopkins UP
Cardwell, S (2002) Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel
MUP
Cartmell, D and Wheelehan (eds) (1999) Adaptations: from Text to Screen, Screen to Text
Routledge
Cartnell D, Hunter, Q and Wheelan, I (eds.) (2001) Retrovisions: Reinventing the Past in Film and Fiction
Pluto Press
Elliott, Kamilla (2003) Rethinking the Novel/Film Debate
CUP
Giddings, R Selby, K and Wensley, C Screening the Novel: Theory and Practice of Literary Dramatisation
Palgrave
McFarlane, B (1996) Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation
Clarendon Press
Vincendeau, (ed.) (2001) Film/literature/heritage: A Sight and Sound Reader (BFI)
BFI
Wagner, G (1989) The Novel and the Cinema
Farleigh Dickinson
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6