FILM ADAPTATION: LITS 2906 (E29F) Novels are a major source or raw material for films and hotly

contested debates about whether the film or novel is better often erupt when individuals are famil iar with both versions. The course moves beyond the rather narrow concerns of fi delity to examine the mobility of meaning in the process of adaptation, various approaches to the study of adaptation, the assumptions and biases that inform re sponses to adaptations, and the underlying theory that informs the process of a daptation. The course will involve the close study of at least three source texts and their adaptations; students will explore how these narratives change in the transfer from one medium to another and in the process generate new meaning. Stu dents will also study theoretical approaches to adaptation. Assessment Tutorial assignment 2,000-2,500 take home essay Responses to activities Final 2 hour exam (2 responses) Prescribed Texts Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park Mansfield Park (1999), Patricia Rozema, Dir. Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. The Color Purple (1985) Steven Spielberg, Dir. McCarthy, Cormac. No Country For Old Men No Country For Old Men (2007), Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Dirs. Essay Questions 1. Compare and contrast the tension between liberty and closure in Austen s Mansfi eld Park and Rozema s adaptation. 2. The study of a family in crisis Through a comparative analysis of Austen s Mansfie ld Park and Rozema s adaptation, discuss the nature of the family crisis in each t ext. 3. [G]eography, as much as class and gender, implies politically charged space . D iscuss the politically charged spaces of Austen s Mansfield Park and Rozema s adapt ation. 4. Compare and contrast the treatment of love, courtship and marriage in Austen s Mansfield Park and Rozema s adaptation. 5. As freely as she subtracts from Austen s text, so does Rozema also add. iled reference to both texts, discuss Rozema s Mansfield Park as a reading an a copy of Austen s novel. With deta rather th 10% 25% 5% 60%

6. An ongoing whirl of intertextual references To what extent is this an appropriat e description of Austen s Mansfield Park and Rozema s adaptation? Tutorial Questions

On Adaptation 1. Movies are good at action; they are not good at reflective thought or concept ual thinking. Do you agree? Discuss with reference to a novel and its adaptation . 2. What a film takes from a book matters; but so does what it brings to a book. D iscuss with reference to a film & its adaptation. 3. Adaptations should not be ascribed to a single source but are caught up in an ongoing whirl of intertextual references and transformation of texts generating other texts in an endless process of recycling, transformation and transmutation , with no clear point of origin . Critically comment on Stam s approach to adaptatio n in Beyond Fidelity . 4. Critically comment on the reasons Stam provides to account for the hostility to adaptation in Introduction: The Theory & Practice of Adaptation (Literature & F ilm: A Guide to the Theory & Practice of Adaptation , eds Raengo & Stam). 5. It is questionable whether strict fidelity is even possible. Discuss the useful ness of the concept of fidelity in the context of film adaptation. 6. The question of fidelity in the adaptation is bound to intrude in personal re flection, but it should play no part in academic discussion. Discuss the difficul ties of achieving this ideal and the extent to which you have been successful i n attaining it. . Mansfield Park (Austen) 1. The impulse in Mansfield Park is not to forgive but to condemn; its praise is not for social freedom but for social stasis (Trilling). Discuss. 2. Mary Crawford is a far more likeable character than Fanny. Do you agree? 3. Discuss the importance of the interlude at Portsmouth. 4. Critically comment on the theme of improvement. 5. Critically comment on the motif of performance. 6. With what intense desire she wants her home , Discuss Fanny s difficulties in defi ning home. 7. Discuss how both Austen and Rozema make use of other texts in Mansfield Park. Mansfield Park (Rozema) 1. Rozema s choices in the film adaptation fail to achieve Austen s larger social com mentary. Do you agree? 2. Discuss the tension between home and abroad . 3. Rozema has said that she wanted to keep the brutal facts of slavery alive thr oughout the film. What is the effect of this intention? 4. Compare the representation of Mansfield Park in novel and film. 5. To what extent does Rozema make Fanny a more likeable character than she is i n the novel? 6. Comment on the function of Sir Bertram. 7. Discuss Rozema s critique of the English gentry. The Color Purple 1. Critically comment on Diawara s concept of the resistant spectator in the con text of watching The Color Purple. 2. Celie s dialect brings the story to life . Compare & contrast the use of dialect i n novel & film. 3. Discuss the effectiveness & function of the epistolary technique in the novel . 4. Critically comment on the function of Sofia in the novel. 5. Walker exposes us to a way of life that for the most part existed beyond or be low the reach of fiction . Discuss The Color Purple as the story of an African Ame rican community.

6. Examine Walker s representation of the relationship between Africans and Africa n Americans. 7. The Color Purple subverts the sacrosanct ideology that states that black men and women must maintain unity. Discuss. 8. Walker forces us to become a member of an oppressed race To what extent does Spi elberg s film locate the spectator within the experiences of racism rather than ou tside it? 9. How does Celie develop over the course of the novel? 10. Compare & contrast two male characters in the novel. 11. To what extent, if any, is Walker guilty of generalisations about black men & women? 12. Critically comment on Winfrey s & Glover s performance in the film. 13. Discuss the construction of homesexuality in the novel. No Country For Old Men (McCarthy) 1. Discuss Chigurh and Bell as representatives of two incompatible ideologies loc ked in battle . 2. What are the implications of Chigurh s murder of Carla Jean? 3. Chigurh is beyond good and evil. Discuss. 4. Discuss the theme of temptation. 5. Critically comment on McCarthy s use of first and third person narration. 6. Discuss the factors contributing to Sheriff Bell s sense of defeat. 7. No Country For Old Men is, at least in part, an attempt to understand or compr ehend the evil in the world. Discuss with reference to either film or novel. No Country For Old Men (Coen bros.) 8. Critically comment on the construction of Chigurh as western villain making r eference to Bardem s performance . 9. Discuss the relationship between violence and manhood. 10. Discuss the function and treatment of setting. 11. Critically comment on the function of the girl hitchhiker. 12. To what extent would you agree that the Coens adaptation rejects McCarthy s ins istence on the possibility of grace? Settling Week 1 in; Introduction to Course What Makes A Good Adaptation? : Thinking about Adaptation. Week 2 Theoretical Approaches to Adaptation Fidelity & Specificity Dialogism Week 3-5 & Intertextuality Mansfield Week 6-8 Park TheCountry No Week Color 9-11 Purple 12 For Old Men Exam workshop

Enjoy