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ENGL 208: Literature and Film

Course Aims and Objectives:
This course surveys formal, generic, historical, cultural, narrative, and theoretical relationships between literature and film across a range of periods, genres, and cultures, paying particular attention to the practice and analysis of literary film adaptation.

Assessments and Submission Deadlines
Please note: In Week 1, we will be asking students to approve a revised series of assessments in lieu of the assessments listed in the enrolment booklet. The changes reduce the number of assessments from four to three, bring parity to the Michaelmas and Lent assessments (as well as a chance to improve in response to feedback), and render the summer term assessment both more streamlined and more substantial.

Revised assessments

• MICHAELMAS TERM: a two-part in-class test held in week 10:
  (1) multiple choice questions testing coverage of this term’s readings, film screenings, and lecture-workshops (15%)
  (2) a short essay (10%)

• LENT TERM: a two-part in-class test held in week 20:
  (1) multiple choice questions testing coverage of this term’s readings, film screenings, and lecture-workshops (15%)
  (2) a short essay (10%)

• SUMMER TERM: a creative project accompanied by a 3000 word critical essay due in Week 21 (creative project 25%; critical essay 25%)

Contact:
2 x 90-minute lecture-workshops per week ex. weeks 6 and 16 (independent study)
1 x 90-180-minute film screening (Attendance is optional: however, students must see the set films before the lecture workshops that address them.)
Please note: There will be an optional film shooting workshop in Week 11 and an optional film editing workshop in Week 12, both on Wed. 2-5; numbers are limited.

Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of the module, students should have a firm grasp of the basic history, theory, and genres of literature’s relationship to film, be able to address both formal and cultural aspects of literary film adaptation, and understand how adaptations function as critical and interpretative works. Students will develop skills in interdisciplinary analysis and in writing across disciplines. In the practical component, they will grapple with issues in the practice as well as the analysis of interdisciplinary relations.

Set Print Texts:
Andrew Dix, Beginning Film Studies
*Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
*Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
*William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Cornell Woolrich, ‘Rear Window’ (on MOODLE)
Philip K. Dick, ‘Minority Report’ (on MOODLE)
Paul Farley, The Dark Film
*Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Annie Proulx, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (on MOODLE)
Jack Schaefer, Shane
*Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
*Bram Stoker, Dracula

*available as free etexts online at various locations, including Project Gutenburg

Additional required readings will be posted on the virtual learning environment (MOODLE). Students should check MOODLE each week.

Recommended texts:
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Timothy Corrigan, ed. Film and Literature: An Introduction and a Reader (2012 edition)

Set Films (shown at screenings; also available in the library’s high demand section)
Adaptation, 2002
The Godfather, 1972
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1931 (sometimes listed as 1932)
Pride and Prejudice, 1940
Bride and Prejudice, 2004
Romeo and Juliet, 1968
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, 1996
Shakespeare in Love, 1999
American Splendor, 2003
Frozen, 2005
Rear Window, 1954
Minority Report, 2002
Wavelength, 1967 (only available on YouTube)
Alice, 1988
Brokeback Mountain, 2005
Shane, 1953
Apocalypse Now, 1979
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992

Note: Excerpts from other films and television adaptations will be shown during lecture-workshops. For this reason, it is impossible to adequately make up for missed lecture-workshops via MOODLE. If you must miss a session, ask a friend to take detailed notes for you.
Lecturers: BB = Dr Brian Baker; KLE = Dr Kamilla Elliott; PF = Prof Paul Farley; GG = Dr George Green; LOB = Dr Liz Oakley-Brown; LP = Prof Lynne Pearce; JS = Dr Jayne Steel; CS = Dr Catherine Spooner

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Back to: ENGL 207

Forward to CREW 303

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