FIL-20011 - Module Specification
School of Humanities
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2020/21

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2020/21

This module moves beyond the fidelity debate that dominated adaptation studies for decades, in which faithfulness to an original literary text is often used as a way of evaluating the quality of its screen adaptation. Instead, we will consider adaptation as a process and a theoretical school, exploring how literary fiction makes the transition into visual narratives, such as films and television shows, but also looking at other forms of adaptations, such as novelizations and video game adaptations. We will engage with genre studies, intertextuality, and theories of rewriting, in which familiar narratives are revisited and reworked. The course will be structured around sets of two adaptations of a source text, in order to see how different versions of each story are echoed, inflected, and reworked across differing media. Indicative content may include Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles; Terence Fisher, The Hound of the Baskervilles; Mark Gatiss, and Steven Moffat, Sherlock; Thomas Harris, Red Dragon; Michael Mann, Manhunter; Bryan Fuller, Hannibal; Ridley Scott, Alien; Alan Dean Foster, Alien: The Official Movie Novelization; and Creative Assembly, Alien: Isolation.
This module is taught through one lecture and one seminar per week. It is assessed by one short paper (1500 words, 30% of the overall assessment) and one essay (2500 words, 70% of the overall assessment).

To develop an understanding and evaluation of adaptations and related theories.
To provide an introduction to literary, film, and television narratives and their critical vocabulary.
To trace the process of adaptation from literature to film and television.
To analyse intertextual connections between various adaptations of the same text.
To develop concepts of authorship, genre, and narration as a means of investigating differences (general and particular) between literary, filmic, and televisual texts.

Intended Learning Outcomes

identify the key features of literary, film, and television language and narration and critically evaluate these in written work; will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
discuss literary, filmic, and televisual texts within a comparative framework and move beyond the fidelity debate in terms of critically engaging with adaptations; will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between literary, film, and television narrative; will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
demonstrate an understanding of relevant critical theories relevant to adaptation studies. will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2

Study hours

10 x 1-hour lectures (10 hours)
10 x 1-hour seminars (10 hours)
Film and television viewing (26 hours)
Reading and class preparation (54 hours)
Short Paper preparation (20 hours)
Essay preparation (30 hours)

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment