Module Information

Many products of culture endure by shifting shape: stories are turned into sculptures, plays are reimagined as dramatic canvases and mass-produced ephemera are recycled for art. What survives such transformations? What is lost or gained in translation? What are the connections between – and interdependencies of – so-called originals and the works that keep coming after them? In a series of lectures and seminars, this interdisciplinary module investigates the processes involved in translative practices that range from the reworking of a literary classic into a graphic novel to drawing a moustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa. It explores relationships between form and content, genre and mode, integrity and hybridity, durability and transience, culture and commerce, as well as art and environmentalism. The module approaches adaptation – or version making – as a regenerative take on past performances. It looks at adaptation within cultural, socio-political and ecological contexts, both as an adjustment to changing times and as a means of bringing about change through artistic vision and artful revision. It raises questions as to the underlying motivations of remaking and unmaking culture and invites reflections on responses such as nostalgia, camp and the uncanny. It asks why the move forward is indebted to looking back – in admiration, agony and anger.