| CODE | ATS5121 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Film Adaptation, the Literary Tradition and the Other Arts | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 10 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Faculty of Arts | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The first part of this study-unit is dedicated to the ongoing debate on theories of film adaptation with special emphasis on such central issues as (in) fidelity, intertextuality, refraction, horizontality as opposed to verticality, and pastiche. These crucial concepts will be analyzed through an assessment of the film adaptation theories of André Bazin, George Bluestone, Brian Mc Farlane, James Naremore, Kamilla Elliott, Robert Stam, Linda Hutcheon, Julie Sanders, Deborah Cartmell, Imelda Whelehan, Thomas Leitch, David L. Kranz and Jack Boozer, among others. We will then proceed to analyze the postmodern strategies devised by various filmmakers in their (a) reconceptual spatialization of Greek Tragedy (eg. Pasolini’s Edipo Re), (b) digital revisioning of Shakespearean theatre (eg. Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books, Taymor’s Titus), (c) ‘medieval’ reworking of Romantic texts like Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (eg. Yoshida’s Arashigaoka) and (d) appropriation of the fem/ Strugatsky science fiction wasteland (eg. Tarkovsky’s Solaris/ Stalker), (e) the appropriation of Jane Austen and the 'Austenmania,' and finally the human mutability of the cybernetic/ alien posthuman Vision of Philip K. Dick and Jack Finney (eg. Scott’s Blade Runner and Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Finally the concept of adaptation will also be opened up to include the relationship between the cinema and various other art forms by analyzing the filmic appropriation of painting (eg. Antonioni’s Il Deserto rosso, Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev, Jarman’s Caravaggio, Scorsese's The Age of Innocence), opera (eg. Bergman’s Trollfojten, Loesy’s Don Giovanni, Zeffirelli’s La Traviata, Rosi’s Carmen De Bizet), ballet/dance (eg. Powell/Pressburger’s The Red Shoes, Aronofsky’s Black Swan), comic books/ graphic novels (eg. Synder’s 300, Burton’s Batman, Mendes’ Road to Perdition, Rodriguez’s Sin City, Mc Teigue’s V For Vendetta, Slade’s 30 Days of Night, Lee’s Hulk), and digital games (eg. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat/ Resident Evil, West’s Tomb Raider, Gans’ Silent Hill). Within this context questions related to the (un)filmability of poetry (eg. The Keatsian evocations of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and the Brontëan intimations of Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures) as well as the (un)translatability of self-reflexive metafiction (eg. Winterbottom’s Tristan Shandy: A Cock and Bull story, Stone’s Finnegans Wake, Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman) will be particularly germane. Study-unit Aims: - To introduce the students to the current debate on film adaptations; - To open up the notion of film adaptations in such a way as to embrace both literary and non-literary sources and their complex interaction with one another; - To enhance a student's prior knowledge in filmic language via an in-depth analysis of a number of key films and theories; - To improve the student's ability in visual analysis through a critical appraisal of the techniques which are deployed in film; - To survey and critique the links between film adaptations and their inspiring literary source as well their non-literary ones such as painting, music, comics, and digital games; - To allow space for comparative analysis between key films in World Cinema; - To analyse complex mutations of the arts as they transcend the barriers separating one discipline from another; - To critically appraise the current discussion within Film Studies and its relation to the other arts while keeping in mind the specificity of cinema as a distinctive art form. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Apply a wide range of theoretical approaches to the "reading" of film adaptations; - Adopt a comparative approach to the study of World cinema which will allow students to engage with film as a discipline capable of transcending linguistic and national boundaries; - Critically appraise the aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings of filmic texts and their literary and non-literary forebears as well as their afterlives; - Discuss the relations between film, television, graphic novels and digital games while bearing in mind the specificity of cinema and its distinctive features with respect to other audio-visual forms of story-telling. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Read filmic works as part of a complex web of intertextual relationships which include film and the other arts with a particular focus on literature; - Integrate filmic analysis into their research on literary and non-literary texts and vice versa; - Formally articulate and discuss in a scholarly fashion their ideas on filmic texts and their relationship with both canonical literature as well as popular culture; - Draw on their improved expressive potential in film and apply it to the critical appraisal of related fields in seminar discussion and in written assignments; - Collegially interact in debate with other postgraduate students in a dynamic and intellectually engaging setting. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - James Naremore, Film Adaptation (Rutgers University Press, 2000). - Sarah Cardwell, Adaptation Revisited. Television and the Classic Novel (Manchester University Press, 2002). - Kamilla Elliott, Rethinking the Novel/Film Debate (Cambridge University Press, 2003). - Robert Stam, Literature and Film. A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation (Blackwell Publishers, 2004). - Jack Boozer, Authorship in Film Adapation (University of Texas Press, 2008). - Colin Maccabe (ed.), True to the Spirit and the Question of Fidelity (Oxford University Press, 2012). - Pascal Nicklas and Oliver Lindner (eds.) Adaptation and Cultural Appropriation. Vol. 27. Literature, Film and the Arts (Walter de Gruyter, 2012). Note: A comprehensive study pack will be prepared for students at the start of the study-unit. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Seminar | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Saviour Catania Fabrizio Foni |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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