Key facts

Type	Weekly Classes
Location	Oxford
Address	Ewert House Ewert Place Summertown Oxford
Dates	Thu 17 Jan to Thu 28 Mar 2013 Day: Thursday Time of meeting: 7.00-9.00pm Number of meetings: 10
Subject area(s)	Film Studies
CATS points	10
Fees	From £165.00
Application status	Course ended
Course code	O12P681FIW
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Overview

This course will explore the way different texts have been adapted from page to screen. We will look at a variety of original sources, from classic novels and plays to more recent texts like graphic novels and science fiction.

Description

The process of adaptation from one form of media into another is a fascinating one. Classic plays and novels, such as Hamlet or Dracula have been adapted and reinterpreted countless times and each adaptation seeks to find something new to say about the original text. Film makers face a wide range of problems when adapting a text - how can you adapt a short story into a full-length film? How does a film maker approach a new film adaptation when the author of the source text is still alive and wants to be involved? Is a film ever able to express the full imaginative potential of a book? Through the course we will explore these and other issues, referring to a wide range of original texts and the films that have emerged as adaptations of them.

Programme details

Week 1: The Classic novel - adaptations of Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Dangerous Liaisons, Valmont and Cruel Intentions.
Week 2: Adapting Sci-Fi - filming the novels of PK Dick. Blade Runner, Total Recall and A Scanner Darkly.
Week 3: Stage to Screen - adapting the plays War Horse and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Week 4: Classic Horror - Versions of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula on screen.
Week 5: The Comic book or Graphic Novel - adaptations of Superman, Batman and V for Vendetta.
Week 6: Shakespeare - The many filmed versions of Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet.
Week 7: Fairy Tales in film - Snow White, The Red Shoes, Little Red Riding Hood.
Week 8: Adaptations of Alice - We will look at Alice as an example of a character who exists beyond her original text. We will look at Alice in films, from Jan Svankmajer to Tim Burton and everything in between.
Week 9: Extending a short story to a full-length film - Brokeback Mountain and Stand By Me.
Week 10: Blockbuster book to film - filming The Golden Compass and the relationship between a living author and the film maker adapting his original text. Philip Pullman will be joining us for this class.

Background Reading:
Monaco, How to read a film
Prince, Movies and Meaning - an Introduction to film
McCabe, Warner, Murray, True to the spirit : film adaptation and the question of fidelity
Cartmell, Hunter, Kaye, Whelehan, Classics in film and fiction
Desmond & Hawkes, Adaptation : studying film and literature
Corrigan, Film and literature : an introduction and reader
Henderson, A concise companion to Shakespeare on screen

Staff

Course aims

Course Aims:
This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to study 'adaptation' from both the English Literature and Film Studies angles. We will study the process by which a written text is adapted into a film, and drawing on film theory, genre studies and auteur criticism we will explore the production of films and introduce students to a wider understanding of academic film criticism and analysis.

Course Objectives:
1. To give students an overview of the process by which a written text is adapted into a film
2. To introduce students to academic methods of film and literature analysis
3. To enable students to understand films within the social and cultural context in which they were made.

Assessment methods

Informal assessment of learning will take place through an ongoing evaluation of each student's contributions to class discussions. Students will be also be encouraged to take part in group work in class. Formal assessment will consist of written assignments to do at home. The students may choose whether to do two short pieces of work (500 words each) or a single 1,000-word essay.

Teaching methods

Each class will include short presentations which may make use of PowerPoint, film clips, sound excerpts and hand outs. These will introduce the students to a topic before moving on to class discussions and smaller group activities that will encourage the students to engage in class discourse and develop and express their own opinions in an academic context.

Teaching outcomes

By the end of the Course students will be expected to:
Identify how and why a single text can inspire vastly different film adaptations.
Recognise common problems faces by film makers when adapting a text into a film.
Discuss an individual adaptation in the wider context of the genre to which it belongs, and the contemporary society which it reflects.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Home/EU fee: £165.00

Non-EU fee: £165.00

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