LT928-7-AU-CO:
Adaptation
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 15 December 2023
20
08 May 2019
Requisites for this module
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This module is about the changing relations between literature and film from the nineteenth century to the present day. We will start with short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe, two writers who sensed the coming of the movies ahead of time, and conclude with a consideration of our own contemporary media-saturated environment where books, movies, and comics continuously feed off and into each other.
Each week will focus on a particular encounter between the two media. We will examine how their relationship has been as hostile and exploitative as it has been interdependent and mutually enriching. Apart from studying particular adaptations, we will also consider how the two media have adapted to each other: how literature provided film with a rich source of stories and storytelling techniques, but also how film altered the kinds of stories writers told, and how they told them. Finally, the course asks why it is that so many contemporary films are about books and readers?
Module Supervisor's Research into Subject Area
Professor Littau has published widely in the fields of print and visual cultures. Her main research interests are in film and literature, cross-media adaptations, and transmedia storytelling. Her most recent book is Cinematicity in Media History (2013, with her colleague Professor Jeffrey Geiger). Her next book is a history of the relations between film and literature.
The learning aims of the module are to:
• introduce students to the historical relations between literature and film
• develop an advanced understanding of how literary texts are retold, updated and recycled across different media
• familiarize students with the ways in which cinema shaped literary writing
On completing this module students should be able to
• demonstrate advanced skills in film and literary analysis
• demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the historical and aesthetic relations between literature and film
• apply, reflect on, and develop theoretical approaches to the study of cross-media adaptations
Indicative Literary Texts
* E.T.A. Hoffmann, 'My Cousin's Corner Window' (1822)
* Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Man of the Crowd' (1840)
* Cornell Woolrich, 'Rear Window' (1942)
* H. G. Wells, 'Through a Window' (1895)
* Luigi Pirandello, SHOOT! (1915, 1925) (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
* John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925) (Penguin, 2000)
* Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953) (HarperCollins, 2008)
* Charles Perrault, 'Little Red Riding Hood'
* Brothers Grimm, 'Little Red Cap' (1812)
* Angela Carter, 'Company of Wolves' & 'Wolf-Alice' (1979)
* Frank Wedekind, Lulu (1882-1901) (Nick Hern Books, 2001)
* Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin (1939) (Vintage, 1998)
* Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press, 2007)
Indicative Films
* Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954)
* Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
* François Truffaut, Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
* Neil Jordan, Company of Wolves (1984)
* G. W. Pabst, Pandora's Box (1929)
* Bob Fosse, Cabaret (1972)
* Martin Scorsese, Hugo (2011)
See Moodle for the full module outline.
Weekly 2-hour class as well as a weekly 2-hour screening.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Additional coursework information
Essay (5,000 words) (100%)
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Karin Littau, email: klittau@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Karin Littau
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Telephone 01206 872626
No
No
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No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
Of 47 hours, 20 (42.6%) hours available to students:
27 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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