Module Identifier
TF32120
Module Title
STUDIES IN LITERARY ADAPTATION
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Dr Paul Newland
Semester
Semester 2
Pre-Requisite
TF10220

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Lecture Lecture 1 x 2 hour per week
Other Viewing 1 x 2 hour per week
 

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:

  1. Critically assess the variety and often conflicting analytical paradigms which characterize the study of literary adaptations;
  2. Critically assess who a literary adaptation film is addressing, and discuss how that address is constructed;
  3. Critically assess differing approaches to genre in the adapted film;
  4. 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).

Reading List


Bulestone, G (2001) Novels into Film John Hopkins UP Primo search Cardwell, S (2002) Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel MUP Primo search Cartmell, D and Wheelehan (eds) (1999) Adaptations: from Text to Screen, Screen to Text Routledge Primo search Cartnell D, Hunter, Q and Wheelan, I (eds.) (2001) Retrovisions: Reinventing the Past in Film and Fiction Pluto Press Primo search Elliott, Kamilla (2003) Rethinking the Novel/Film Debate CUP Primo search Giddings, R Selby, K and Wensley, C Screening the Novel: Theory and Practice of Literary Dramatisation Palgrave Primo search McFarlane, B (1996) Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation Clarendon Press Primo search The Bibliography will be largely determined by the author(s) studied, including expectations that the students will read the source literature. Vincendeau, (ed.) (2001) Film/literature/heritage: A Sight and Sound Reader (BFI) BFI Primo search Wagner, G (1989) The Novel and the Cinema Farleigh Dickinson Primo search

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6