Ovidius University of Constanta Faculty of Letters Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and Communication Sciences

MA Program title: Anglo-American Studies

Module title: Literature and Film

Module Code: FL.SAA.DI.1.2.12 Load: 1 c + 2 s / week Number of credits: 5 Evaluation type: Colloq Academic year: 2012-2013, 2nd semester

Module instructor: Ileana Chiru Jitaru, PhD Schedule: Thu, 4-8 p.m. / 68 p.m. Room: 132

1. Introduction to the module.

An interdisciplinary approach, this course will explore the relations between literature and film by tackling the multiple facets involved in the process of adaptation, with a special focus on the Anglo-American literary and filmic canon. It is meant to introduce terms and concepts essential to the students critical perception of the transition from literature to film, in order to accustom them to formulate meanings analytically. With a view to this, the course will investigate several theoretical frames including: basic concepts of written and filmic narratives, main transcriptions of discourse in the rite of passage that the adaptation of literature on screen entails, starting from the written discourse based on linguistic signs to the more complex filmic discourse mainly based on visual and auditory signs.

2. Module aims, training and targeted skills.

The discussions will bring into focus techniques used in the filmmaking in order too make students aware of the consequences that the filmmakers choices regarding these techniques have on viewers. The scrutiny will concern the way student viewers may formulate meanings and the way in which concepts of film criticism can be exhausted for the students deep understanding of the significations a film may open itself to. The students will be guided to acquire different analytical skills, to improve their readingwatching comprehension and they will be proposed exercises for examining films and topics for discussions and writing. Each three-hour class will be accompanied by a set of questions that the students will apply against the concepts just introduced. They will consider these when analyzing an excerpt from the proposed novel and its equivalent scene/sequence from the adapted film version. As a final individual project, the students will be required to select an adaptation of a novel/short story on screen, and decode the transformations involved in the process of adapting the source [see Course policy, requirements, assessment below]. In terms of insetion on the labour market, students might try their hand as film critics writing specialised columns in different media platforms; they are expected to provide an expertised, professional analysis of a film, targeting film techniques and for film adaptationsstructural alterations from source novel/play/short story to the filmed version on screen.

3. Module structure and content. W ee k

Lecture

Topic

Film analysis
The French Lieutenants Woman, Dir. Karel Reisz, 1981. (124min)

Assigned reading

1.

Lecture 1: A Brief History of Anglo American Cinema Lecture 2: Basics of film adaptation theory (adaptation as dialogism).

Screening:

2.

1. adaptation as intertextual dialogism; 2. adaptation between intertextuality and hypertextuality; 3. types of adaptations.

Linda Hutcheon. A Theory of Adaptation. pp. 22-32.

Assigned reading+:

Mast, G et al.. Film Theory and Criticism,, 1992. [pp.403 -419; 420-429] Welsh, James and Peter Lev. The Literature-Film Reader. Issues of Adaptation . 2007. pp.334; pp. 51-60.
The French Lieutenants Joy Goud Boyum, The French

3.

analysis

Woman, Dir. Karel Reisz, Juniper Films, 1981.

4.

Lecture 3: The narrative of fiction & film

1. Narrative structures in novel and film. 2. Events: narrative functions in novel and film. 3. Character functions in novel and film

Lieutenants Woman Dual Perspectives in Double Exposure: Fiction into Film. Jakob Lothe. Narrative in Fiction and in Film. pp. 110154. James Naremore. Film Adaptation. pp. 28-37; 55-74.

Assigned reading+: Barthes, Roland. Image Music Text. ,,, 1977. [Introduction to the Structural Analysisof Narratives pp. 79-125. Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art - An Introduction.. [ Fillm narrative Ch.3. pp. 74 -111] Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. (Chs.2-3, pp.43-145) Hunt, Robert et al. The Language of Film. [Narrative pp. 39-69 ] Kenan, Ramon. Narrative Fiction. [Ch.2-8 7 -121] Pramaggiore, Maria and Tom Wallis . Film art: A critical Introduction. [Ch.4 Narrative form 61-86] Stam, Robert et al.. New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics-Structuralism, Poststructuralism and Beyond. [Ch.III Narratology pp. 70-124]
5. analysis Adaptation as intersemiotic translation: a) selection of events; b) cinesemiotic translation; c) redistribution of the narrative elements and reconfiguration of the filmic narration The Godfather. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Paramount Pictures, 1972. Glen Man. Ideology and Genre in the Godfather Films.

6.

Lecture 4: Film semiotics

Assigned reading+: Barthes, Roland. S-Z. Semiotics - The Five Codes: XI pp. 18-20] Hunt, Robert et al. The Language of Film. [Semiotics pp.13-39] Metz, Christian. Film Language-A Semiotics of the Cinema. [Ch II - Problems of film semiotics pp.31-145] Monaco, James. How to Read a Film - Movies, Media and Beyond. [Ch. 3 -The Language of Films - Signs and Syntax] Stam, Robert et al.. New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics-Structuralism, Poststructuralism and Beyond. [Ch.II Cinesemiology pp.29-69]
Film and time to If possible, a film adaptation will

7. Sptmna Altfel (4th of April)

Watching a film at Cinema City (Maritimo Shopping Center) Poziia Copilului / Childs Pose
(Dir. Calin Peter Netzer, 2013)

be decided together 2 weeks in advance. http://cinemacity.r o/program.php? zi=28.02&cinemaId =1813 Suggestions for analysis: - the narrative structure of the film; - character functions; - narrative functions; ---

be chosen. If available, source novel/shortstory will be read in advance.

8.

Students lecture: Aftermath of Saptamana Altfel at CC.

Each student presents a 5-minute material with their own assessment/analysis/ deconstruction of the film watched together a week before.

--- -type of adaptation -a macrostructure comparison between source novel and film. [if applicable] [you may apply any theoretical concept discussed in class so far] William K. Ferrell. A Return to Matrarchy: The Color Purple by Alice Walker". In Literature and Film as Modern Mythology.

9.

[Lecture 4: Film semiotics]

analysis

The Color Purple. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Warner Brothers, 1985.

10.

Work in progress

Roundtable: discussions of intended projects. Counseling. mise en scene, cinematography editing, sound, graphics

Students present their choices for the final essay. William H. Philips Film - an Introduction Chapter 1, pp. 9 68, Chapter 2 pp. 68-122.

Lecture 5: Film syntax 11.

Assigned reading+: Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art - An Introduction. [Film style - Chs.4-8 pp. 112-317 Monaco, James. How to Read a Film - Movies, Media and Beyond. [Ch. 3_The Language of Films - Signs and Syntax] Pramaggiore, Maria and Tom Wallis . Film art: A critical Introduction. [Mise en scene Sound = Ch 5-8 pp. 86 - 278]
analysis The Hours, Dir. Stephen Daldry, Paramount Pictures, 2002. brief presentation William H. Philips Film - an Introduction Chapter 3 pp. 122166, Chapter 4 pp. 166-197.
A print of their slides [6 slides per A4 sheet] will be attached to the final essay.

12.

13.

Lecture 6: 10 ppt

Students prepare a

of their work.

14.

Final discussions. Submission of projects.

4. Course policy, requirements, and assessment.

The students must cover the Assigned reading suggested for each week before each class and watch the set film in order to make in-class discussions more efficient.

The final assessment with take into account the following:

A. Overall involvement in in-class activities and home assignments - 33% B. Final written assignment - 66% A. Overall involvement in in-class activities and home assignments - 33%
If a student has been assigned a topic for a seminar and she / he fails to attend it, the assignment will be sent to the tutor by mail.

Students who do not have at least 50% class attendance [at least 7 of 14] must cover 4 of the suggested topics for discussion in order to make up for not being part of class discussions. Each topic should belong to one of the four main section of the module: 1) Adaptation as dialogism; 2) The narrative of fiction & film; 3) Film semiotics; 4) Film syntax
(choose one from each section).

B. Final written assignment - 66% The students must choose one topic from the list of suggested discussion topics advanced during lectures and seminars and develop it in a personal and original critical essay [1500-2000 words]. This choice might refer to one of the novels-films already discussed or from a film adaptation of their own choice. The novel and film works should belong to the Anglo-American fictional/filmic canon. However, a different choice will not imply disqualification or lower grading.

The final essay [1500-2000 words] should be delivered to the course instructor in Week 14 on the last meeting of the semester [venue: Rom 132]. a) In print form [Arial 11, spacing 1,5 lines] AND b) In electronic form sent by email at <ileanajitaru@ymail.com>. The deadline for submission of essay: week 14. If the film choice for your final analysis includes a title other than those discussed in class, the essay must be accompanied by a copy of the film. Plagiarism and cheating implies disqualification of the paper and exam failure.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY SOURCES

Novels Cunningham, Michael. The Hours, New York, Picador, 1998. Fowles, John. The French Lieutenants Woman. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1969. Puzo, Mario. The Godfather. New York: Fawcett Publications, 1969. Walker, Alice. The Color Purple New York: Pocket Books, 1982. Films The Color Purple. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Warner Brothers, 1985. The French Lieutenants Woman, Dir. Karel Reisz, Juniper Films, 1981. The Godfather. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Paramount Pictures, 1972. The Hours, Dir. Stephen Daldry, Paramount Pictures, 2002.

SECONDARY SOURCES
5

Criticism on individual works

The Color Purple Alice Walker / Steven Spielberg Digby, Joan. From Walker to Spielberg Transformations of The Color Purple . Ed. Peter Reynolds. Novel Images. Literature in Performance , New York: Routledge, 1993, 157-174. A Return to Matrarchy: The Color Purple by Alice Walker". Literature and Film as Modern Mythology. Ed. William K. Ferrell. Westport & London: Praeger, 2000. 97- 106. The French Lieutenants Woman - John Fowles / Karel Reisz Balsamo, Gian. The Narrative Text as Historical Artifact. Image and Ideology in Modern/postmodern Discourse. David B. Downing and Susan Bazargan (eds.), 1991.127-153. http://books.google.com/books? id=SCASqD4o_wQC&pg=PA127&dq=john+fowles&lr=&as_brr=3&rview=1 Gale, Steven H.. Harold Pinter: The French Lieutenants Woman A Masterpiece of Cinematic Adaptation. The Films of Harold Pinter, New York: State University of New York. 69-86. http://books.google.com/books?id=-5_QS_zrwAQC&pg=PA69&dq=the+french+lieutenant %27s+woman&lr=#PPP9,M1 The Godfather Mario Puzo / Francis Ford Coppola Man, Glen. Ideology and Genre in the Godfather Films. Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather Trilogy. Ed. Nick Browne, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 109132. Dika, Vera. The Representation of Ethnicity in the Godfather. Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather Trilogy. Ed. Nick Browne, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 76-108. The Hours - Michael Cunningham / Stephen Daldry Young, Tory. Michael Cunningham's The Hours. New York: Continuum, 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=bzSLERYpOQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Hours&lr = Williams, Bronwyn T. and Amy A. Zenger. The Passions of the Romantic Author". Popular Culture and Representations of Literacy. London New York: Routledge, 2007.127-144. http://books.google.com/books?id=DDvbNnO4OH8C&pg=PA133&dq=The+Hours+film

Literary / Film Theory and Criticism

David Bordwell. Narration in the Fiction Film. London: Routledge, 1986. pp. 23-56. Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. New York: Longman, 1998. Cartmell, Deborah, and Imelda Whelehan, eds. Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text. London and New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 66-88. Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978. Desmond, John M., and Peter Hawkes. Adaptation: Studying Film and Literature . New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. Lothe, Jakob. Narrative in Fiction and in Film. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. pp. 110154. 6

Naremore, James. Film Adaptation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. pp. 5574. Philips, William H. Film - an Introduction. London: Macmillan, 1998. pp. 9 19 Stam, Robert. The Dialogics of Adaptation. Film Adaptation. Ed. James Naremore New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000, 54-76. EBooks: Aragay, Mireia. Books in Motion: Adaptation Intertextuality Authorship , New York: Rodopi, 2005. [case studies] Barthes, Roland. Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press, 1977. [Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives pp. 79-125.] Barthes, Roland. S-Z., Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1973. [Semiotics - The Five Codes: XI pp. 18-20] Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art - An Introduction, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008. [Fillm narrative Ch.3. pp. 74 -111; Film style - Chs.4-8 pp. 112-317 Bordwell, David. Narration-in-the-Fiction-Film, Wisconsin: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1984. Buckland, Warren. The Cognitive Semiotics of Film, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004 . Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film, Ithaca & London: Cornell Univ. Press, 1980. (Chs.2-3, pp.43-145) Hunt, Robert et al. The Language of Film, Lausanne: AVA Publishing, 2010. [Semiotics pp.1339; Narrative pp. 39-69 ] Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. pp. 25-32. Kenan, Ramon. Narrative Fiction, New York and London: Routledge, 2002. [Ch.2-8 7 -121] Mast, G et al.. Film Theory and Criticism, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992. [pp.403 -419; 420-429] Metz, Christian. Film Language-A Semiotics of the Cinema, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1974. [Ch II. Problems of film semiotics pp.31-145] Monaco, James. How to Read a Film - Movies, Media and Beyond, London & New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009. [Ch. 3_The Language of Films - Signs and Syntax] Noth, Winfried. Handbook of Semiotics, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990. Pramaggiore, Maria and Tom Wallis . Film art: A critical Introduction. Boston, Pearson, 2008 [Ch.4 Narrative form 61-86 ; Mise en scene Sound = Ch 5-8 pp. 86 - 278] Stam, Robert Alessandra Raengo. A Companion to Literature and Film, London & New York: Blackwell Publishers, 2006. [case studies] Stam, Robert et al.. New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics-Structuralism, Poststructuralism and Beyond. New York and London: Routledge, 1992. [Ch.II Cinesemiology pp.29-69; Ch.III Narratology pp. 70-124]

Welsh, James and Peter Lev. The Literature-Film Reader. Issues of Adaptation . Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2007. [pp.3-34; pp. 51-60]