SFE21317 British literature adapted into films (Autumn 2017)

The course is connected to the following study programs

Obligatory subject within the 90 study credits English Extension Course.

May be taken as part of the bachelor programme in Society, Language and Culture.

Lecture Semester

English Extension Course: 1st Semester (Autumn)
Bachelor in Society, Language and Culture: 3rd or 5th Semester (Autumn)

The student's learning outcomes after completing the course

KNOWLEDGE
The student has

• knowledge of film language, film theory and film history
• knowledge of key works in British literature and film adaptations of these works
• insight into how film adaptations can help to rework classical literature

SKILLS
The student is capable of

• applying concepts and theory covered in the course in his or her own comparative analyses of film and fiction
• discussing how different types of film adaptations problematise our attitudes towards topics such as gender, ethnicity, class, history and identity
• selecting relevant specialist literature for an oral presentation on a film adaptation of a literary work chosen by the student

GENERAL COMPETENCE
The student has

• insight into the various storytelling methods used in film and how film continues narrative traditions
• knowledge of the forms of expression used in film and literature in different cultural and historical contexts
• improved his or her oral proficiency in the English language and in multimodal presentation methods

Content

The course provides an introduction to adaptation theory and adaptation history, with emphasis on film adaptations of British literary classics. Through lectures and seminars, students will examine the relationship between literature and film, discuss the film medium's influence on the development of new literary genres and techniques, and show how this contributes to the continued relevance and popularity of literature. The study material is composed of a selection of film adaptations and the literature on which they are based, as well as relevant theory. The selection illustrates the development of and different trends in fiction and film.

Forms of teaching and learning

The teaching methods used are lectures, seminars and supervision.

Workload

Approx. 280 hours

Coursework requirements - conditions for taking the exam

The student must give an oral presentation based on a film adaptation of a literary work chosen by the student. In this presentation, the student will use analytical tools and theory learned in the course to elucidate aspects of both the literary work and the adaptation. The presentation must be multimodal in accordance with specified criteria. A written bibliography of sources must be submitted.

Required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam.

Examination

A five-hour individual written exam.
Permitted aids: English dictionary. Grade scale A-F.

Course evaluation

The course is evaluated every semester.

Literature

The reading list is last updated 6th of June 2017. The reading list may be subject to change until the start of the semester.

Films:
Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola

Jude (1996) Michael Winterbottom

Hamlet (2000) Michael Almereyda

A Cock and Bull Story (2006) Michael Winterbottom

How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

Alice in Wonderland (2010) Tim Burton

Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) James Bobin

Novels:
Hamlet (1601) William Shakespeare

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759- 1769) Laurence Sterne (utdrag)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) Lewis Carroll

Jude the Obscure (1895) Thomas Hardy

Heart of Darkness (1899/1902) Joseph Conrad

How to Train Your Dragon (2003) Cressida Cowell

Theoretical texts:
Lothe, Jakob. Narrative in Fiction and Film: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.1-101, 157-196.

Kompendium:
Andrew, Dudley. 'Adaptation' [1984], in Film Theory and Criticism, ed. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen and Leo Braudy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. 420-28.

Church Gibson, Pamela. 'Fewer Weddings and More Funerals: Changes in the Heritage Film' in British Cinema of the 90s, ed. Robert Murphy. London: British Film Institute, 2000, pp. 115-124.

Constandinides, Costas. From Film Adaptation to Post-Celluloid Adaptation. New York: Continuum, 2010, pp. 10-18.

Eikhenbaum, Boris. 'Literature and Cinema' [1926], in Russian Formalism, ed. Stephen Bann and John Bowlt. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973, pp. 122-27.

Lodge, David. Working with Structuralism. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, pp. 95-105.

Lunenfeld, Peter. 'The Myths of Interactive Cinema', in Narrative Across Media, ed. Marie-Laure Ryan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004, pp. 377-390.

McMahan, Alison. The Films of Tim Burton. Animating Live Action in Contemporary Hollywood. New York: Continuum, 2005, pp. 20 - 44.

Mulvey, Laura. 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' [1975], in Film Theory and Criticism, eds. L. Braudy, M. Cohen and G. Mast. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. 746-757.

Rampley, Matthew. 'The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Author', in Exploring Visual Culture, ed. M. Rampley. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005, pp. 149-162.

Rowe, Katherine. '"Remember me": Technologies of Memory in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet', in Shakespeare the Movie II, ed. Richard Burt and Lynda E. Boose. London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 37-55.

Svenhard, Britt W. 'Decadence Revisited in Michael Winterbottom's Jude', in States of Decadence: On the Aesthetics of Beauty, Decline and Transgression across Time and Space Vol. 2, eds. Karen S Patrick Knutsen and Guri Ellen Barstad. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, pp. 2-20.

Svenhard, Britt W. 'How to Train Your Dragon - and how to read a story where there is none', in Narratology Plus: Studies in Recent International Narratives for Children and Young Adults, eds. Karen S Patrick Knutsen and Peter Langemeyer. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2017, pp. 221-244.

Material covered at lectures and published on the university college's learning platform comes in addition to the reading list.