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English 399W -01 & -02=
english honorS Seminar:
adaptation of narrative ac=
ross
media
Prof. David Richter
The
Seminar:
Shall
we read the novel or wait for the movie to come out? We expect that popular novels will
become films, that successful films will made into operas[1],
and that comic book characters will show up in Broadway musicals. J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit, the prequel to Lord
of the Rings, has been transformed into an animated film, into two
live-action films to be released next year, a graphic novel (adapted by Di=
xon
and Deming), and, like some other quest fantasies, into two role-playing v=
ideo
games. Jane Austen's most po=
pular
novel, Pride and Prejudice, ha=
s been
made into two films set in Regency England and transposed into other films=
set
in present day London (Bridget Jon=
es's
Diary), India (Bride and Preju=
dice)
and Utah (A Latter-Day Comedy)=
.
We
will focus on the differences in the ways stories are told in prose, in fi=
lm,
in graphic designs, the storytelling practices and strategies and techniqu=
es
that operate within specific media (and resist translation), along with the
changes the process of adaptation forces, not only in the manner of tellin=
g,
but in what can be told.
Inevitably, we will be examining and arguing about the social, cult=
ural,
and political motives that may underlie these changes. These questions will bring us int=
o contact,
at least, with some of the controversies within contemporary narrative the=
ory.
There
is a tendency to treat adaptation as a one-dimensional process--to begin a=
nd
end by asking what has gotten lost in translation--particularly when the
"original" is a respected literary text and the adaptation is a =
movie
which, most of the time, is as forgettable as so many movies are. But
adaptation involves interpretation, a process of creative destruction, and=
two
film adaptations can present very different interpretations, as we see in
Laurence Olivier's and Kenneth Branagh's versions of Shakespeare's Henry V, which read into the same=
text
opposing attitudes toward patriotism and war. Deference to the original prose na=
rrative
can't be the whole story, in any case, since many canonical texts are
adaptations of texts that would otherwise have been forgotten. Shakespeare's Othello was adapted from "Un capitano Moro," a =
short
tale by Giovan Battista Giraldi (aka Cinthio), and it's clear that there a
great deal was gained in the translation. Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida was taken from Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, behind whic=
h we
can glimpse Boccaccio's Filostrato=
and, a long way back of that, Homer's Iliad. There we can see adaptive
interpretations engaged in an elaborate process of creative destruction, e=
ach
new work a genuine rethinking and reframing of the earlier work, and layme=
n and
scholars alike can argue whether what emerged was successful or not.  =
;
We
should add that adaptations are often not respectful in the least: sometim=
es, in
the hands of a satirist, the destruction part is done with malice aforetho=
ught,
as with Martin Rowson's "graphic novel" version of T.S. Eliot's&=
nbsp;The Waste Land, an oppositional
adaptation, adaptation as critique, with Rowson using film noir imagery --
drawn from the Howard Hawks film version of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep -- to parody the iconic modernist po=
em.
We
will not be interested primarily in safe and faithful reproductions=
of
originals, but in adaptations that take artistic liberties, like Patricia
Rozema's Mansfield Park (based=
on
Jane Austen's novel, letters and juvenilia), ones that re-code the narrati=
ve
for a different culture like Akira Kurosawa's Ran (based on Shakespeare's King
Lear), or ones that challenge the rules of their own medium by attempt=
ing an
absolutely literal translation of the prose text, like Eric Rohmer's Die Marquise von O taken from the=
1808 short
story of that name by the German romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist. And =
at
some point we will brave the encounter with Adaptation
(2002), the adaptation about adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze and based=
on The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, with a screenpla=
y about
the perils and frustrations of screenwriters who find themselves locked in=
to a
death-waltz with the writer whose work is being adapted.
In
addition to the texts mentioned above, the seminar will include adaptations
such as John Huston's The Dead=
(based
on James Joyce's novella in Dublin=
ers)
and Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World
(based on Daniel Clowes's graphic novel).=
Our
discussion of the adaptations of paratexts will be designed to model the k=
ind
of formal and cultural analysis that you should pursue in your Honors
Essay. As you will discover,=
there
aren't any hard and fast rules for creating successful adaptations, skille=
d and
experienced readers and film viewers will differ about whether adaptations=
are
successful, while the theory of adaptation is now and has been for decades=
a
site of heated argument over basic principles. Our aim will be not to settle que=
stions
once and for all, but to appreciate why we keep asking them, and to join i=
n the
ongoing conversation.
Students
will work on individually chosen<=
/b>
writing projects, leading to a research paper of around 5000-6000 words wh=
ose first
draft will be submitted at the end of the semester. The final draft will be submitted=
during
the second semester of the Honors Seminar.
Learning
Goals
You
should gain a sense of the problems and processes involved in the adaptati=
on of
a narrative from one medium to another.&n=
bsp;
You
should learn how adaptations of narrative address social, cultural, and
political concerns.
You
should learn about storytelling practices, strategies, and techniques in p=
rose
fiction, film and graphic narrative.
You
will learn to conduct original research, attentive both to the conventions=
of
literary analysis and the boundaries of disciplinary thinking.
You
will find and incorporate relevant source materials into your writing, usi=
ng
appropriate scholarly recourses such as books, journals, indexes, online
catalogues, web search engines, and libraries. You will also learn correct citat=
ion
methods (Chicago style, MLA).
NOTE: The grades I shall =
give
you in the seminar are different from the determination at the end of the =
year
whether you receive honors and what level of honors (honors, high honors,
highest honors) it might be. Those distinctions are awarded by the Honors
Committee which makes its determination, not on your fulfillment of the co=
urse requirements
given below, but solely on the basis of your performance on the Honors ess=
ay, your
performance on the Honors examination, your overall GPA and your GPA in
English.
Course
Requirements
Attendance =
and
Participation (15%)
Regular
attendance and active participation are essential. Plan to attend every cl=
ass
meeting and to arrive on time, especially when we have guests visiting the
class. If an absence is unavoidable, it is your responsibility to obtain a=
ny
materials, notes, and instructions that you have missed. For a classroom t=
o be
truly collaborative, everyone must feel comfortable expressing his or her =
ideas.
We need to respond to each other with respect, even if we do not agree.
Open Class =
Blog
(15%)
From
the second week of the semester, you are required to produce a weekly blog
post. Each post should be the result of 15-20 minutes of concentrated thin=
king
and writing or at least one paragraph long (approx. 200 words). Make sure =
that
your post is timely: that it reflects critically
on
a recent or future reading, draws connections to previous discussions and
readings or comments constructively on someone else’s post. You will=
not
receive credit if your post repeats what has been said in class or written=
on
other students' blogs. I will read your posts and respond to them on the c=
lass
blog at least once a week. I may also refer to posts during class meetings=
and
you should feel free to do the same.
Nancy
Foasberg, the Humanities librarian who will be working with you on your Ho=
nors Essays,
will also be responding on the class blog, when appropriate. Please may su=
re to
read her advice and follow her instructions carefully.
The
URL for our Adaptation class blog is at http://honorsenglish2013.qwriting.=
org/ ; you have to log in with your Qw=
riting
username and password. Directions for creating your=
own
blog are to be found on the first post on the course blog. The password that you will need t=
o log
on as an "author" of the class blog is ric399 and the blog number
(which you will need to link YOUR blog to the COURSE blog) is 3717. I am assuming that most of you al=
ready
have a Qwriting account, in which case you just use your current name and
password. If this is your fi=
rst
course with a blog, then you will first need to create a personal Qwriting
account, and the directions are at the URL, qwriting.org
Oral Presen=
tation
(10%)
A
10-minute oral presentation on a course “key word” followed by=
a
short (5-minute) class Q
and
A. Please consult the forthcoming oral presentation assignment sheet for
further guidelines.
Research Es=
say
(60%)
The
formal writing assignment will be a 18-25 page (typed/double spaced/12 pt.
font) research
essay
on a topic developed by you in consultation with me. (There will also be a
process of peer review. Some=
of
your classmates, ones who are working on similar topics, perhaps, will read
your essay and respond to it. You
will also do peer review on other students' essays.)
We
will be working on these essays across the length of the semester and into=
the
next, and the assignment will include four formal stages (as well as a var=
iety
of informal ones). These four formal stages are:
1.
Draft Prospectus (10%)
2.
Revised Prospectus and Annotated Bibliography (15%)
3.
Preliminary Essay Draft (25%)
4.
Peer Review (10%)
After
winter break, assuming that you are continuing in the Honors program:
5.
Revised Draft and Argument Abstract
We’ll
discuss each stage in more detail as the semester progresses. Due dates are
indicated on the syllabus. All written assignments are to be submitted both
digitally and in hard copy, unless otherwise indicated.
Conferences
I
will arrange one-on-one conferences a couple of times during the semester,=
one
to discuss your prospectus draft and one to discuss your essay draft in
progress. If you must reschedule a conference, please let me know 24 hours=
in
advance. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee that the
conference
can be rescheduled.
Required
Texts:
NOTE: Most of the req=
uired literary
and critical texts will be ordered and available from the Queens College
bookstore. Films and some of=
the literary
and critical texts for the course will be available online via BlackBoard.=
The films will be in Flash Video =
format
and can be streamed on your personal computers or any other mechanism that
plays FLV files. The links f=
or
streaming will be on BlackBoard. =
span>
Required
Texts:
Jane
Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Jane
Austen: Mansfield Park
Raymond
Chandler: The Big Sleep
Daniel
Clowes: Ghost World (Bb)
T.S.
Eliot: The Waste Land
James
Joyce: "The Dead"
Heinrich
von Kleist: "The Marquise of O" (Bb)
Susan
Orlean: The Orchid Thief
Martin
Rowson: The Waste Land (Bb)
William
Shakespeare: King Lear
Highly
Recommended Textbooks about Narrative:
I've said "highl=
y recommended"
but unless you already know them, these texts are really required f=
or
those who need to learn the basics about narrative in prose, on film, and =
in
graphic (comics) form. If yo=
u're
vague about basic narrative concepts (such as story and discourse, storywo=
rlds,
framing, gaps, the implied author, the unreliable narrator) you definitely=
NEED
Abbott. (I've put his chapte=
r on
Adaptation onto BlackBoard.) His
book has the gift for lucidly explaining difficult concepts. If you haven'=
t had
a serious intro to film course, and you are planning to write about a film
adaptation, you NEED Bordwell/Thompson.&n=
bsp;
Ditto McCloud for those working on graphic narrative, either fictio=
n or
memoir.
David H. Richter: A Narrative Primer (these are exc=
erpts
from my textbooks on narrative, Re=
ading
Stories and Narrative/Theory). The books are out of print, I've =
put my
materials on BlackBoard. )
Porter Abbott: The Cambridge Introduction to Narrati=
ve
(QC Bookstore). You probably=
need
this book. It is or will be =
at the
bookstore. It's also $22 new=
via
Amazon Prime; used copies are about the same price once you add postage.
David Bordwell and Kr=
isten
Thompson: Film Art: An Introductio=
n. This is a very expensive b=
ook
($90+) in the latest (9th) edition.
But you don't need the latest edition to get Bordwell and Thompson's
clear and well illustrated explanations of how films tell stories and crea=
te
cinematic art. Used c=
opies
of the 8th edition (2006) are available online for less than $10 including
postage. I didn't order this=
at the
bookstore because they would be ordering the latest edition.
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics. This 1994 book is $12.49 new via A=
mazon
Prime. If you're planning to work on a graphic novel or memoir for your ho=
nors
paper you need to buy this book. =
span>I
will put short excerpts onto BlackBoard for our use when we work on Rowson=
and
Clowes.
Tentative
Schedule:
Note that, because of=
how
the holidays fall this autumn, the dates of the corresponding Monday and
Wednesday classes diverge in weird ways.&=
nbsp;
Mark your calendars.
Before class starts:<=
/span>
Please
read Jane Austen's Pride and Preju=
dice
and watch the Joe Wright film, which is already online, you get to it via
BlackBoard. Write up, in 100=
0 words
or so, your impressions about the film, your sense of the way it
"interprets" the novel, whether you think it was or was not
successful and why. Email it=
to me
before the first class (to david.richter@qc.cuny.edu ). This is a prelimin=
ary diagnostic paper, and while I wi=
ll read
it carefully, it will not affect your grade (unless you don't do it).
Week I.
Monday
evening August 27; Wednesday August 29:&n=
bsp;
Organizational
Meeting. – Discussion of film adaptation of literary texts: literal =
and
free translations, interpretations, re-creations. Prose fiction: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. Film: Joe Wright, dir.: Pride and Prejudice (2005).
Focus:
How is Joe Wright's Pride and Prej=
udice
an "interpretation" of Austen's novel, and how is that interpret=
ation
carried out? Give me your
pre-course ideas on your blogs before class begins.
September
3 is Labor Day; college is closed.
Week II.
Wednesday
September 5, Monday evening
September 10:
Film
bootcamp. Treatments,
screenplays, films. How film=
s tell
stories. Editing and
cinematography.
September
17-18 is Rosh Hashanah; no classes are scheduled.
Week III.
Wednesday
September 12, Monday evening September 24:
Film
bootcamp continues.
Preliminary
and relatively unspecific discussion of three other Pride and Prejudice films with different relationships to the
Austen text:
(1)
Pride and Prejudice (1940, Rob=
ert Z.
Leonard, dir, Aldous Huxley scr);
(2)
Bride and Prejudice (2004, Gur=
inder
Chadha, dir. and scr., Paul Berges, scr.);
(3)
Bridget Jones' Diary (2001, Sh=
aron
Maguire dir, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis scr., based on Helen Fieldin=
g's
novel).
September
25-26 is Yom Kippur; no classes scheduled.
Week IV.
Wednesday
September 19; Monday evening
October 1:
Raymond
Chandler: The Big Sleep.
Howard
Hawks, dir: The Big Sleep (194=
6)
Popular
fiction and film noir, the rules and conventions. How does the adaptation differ fr=
om the
novel?
October
8 is Columbus Day; college is closed.
Week V.
Wednesday
October 3; Monday class meets
unusually on Wednesday evening October 10:
T.S.
Eliot: The Waste Land
Is
there a narrative, or a set of narratives, hidden in The Waste Land?
Week VI.
Monday
evening October 15, Wednesday October 17:
How
comics tell stories. Some hi=
nts
from Scott McCloud. Confront=
ational
adaptation.
Graphic
text: Martin Rowson: The Waste Lan=
d
Week VII.
Monday
October 22, Wednesday October 24:
Film
adaptation of graphic text:
Daniel
Clowes: Ghost World
Terry
Zwigoff: Ghost World
Week VIII.
Monday
October 29, Wednesday October 31:
Do we sometimes need to read the boo=
k to be
able to watch the movie?
Special
problems with filming modernist texts.
James
Joyce: The Dead.
John
Huston dir: The Dead.
November 1: Deadline =
for
Honors Essay Prospectus.
Week IX.
Monday
November 5, Wednesday November 7:
What
happens if nothing gets lost =
at the
movies? Literalization in Er=
ic
Rohmer.
Heinrich
von Kleist: "The Marquise of O."
Eric
Rohmer: Die Marquise von O.
Week X.
Monday
November 12, Wednesday November 14:
Improving
on Jane Austen, or betraying the Mistress?
Jane
Austen: Mansfield Park
Patricia
Rozema: Mansfield Park
Week XI.
Monday
November 19, Wednesday November 21:
Cultural
transformations, Shakespeare meets the samurai movie.
William
Shakespeare: King Lear
Akira
Kurosawa: Ran
Honors Essay Revised
Prospectus with Bibliography due November 21.
Week XII.
Monday
November 26, Wednesday November 28:
Postmodern
adaptation, adaptation about adaptation about....
Susan
Orlean: The Orchid Thief
Spike
Jonze, dir.: Adaptation
Week XIII.
Monday
December 3, Wednesday December 5:
This
week is all about writing the Honors essay.
Week XIV.
Monday
December 10, Wednesday December 12:
This
week is all about writing the Honors essay.
[Week
XV.
Monday
December 17, Wednesday December 19:]
First draft of the Ho=
nors
Essay is due on your class date.
--------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----------
During
the Christmas break, I will return your first drafts with comments and you=
will
start working on further drafts leading to the final draft in early March.=
--------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----------
Spring
Semester
Full-class
work focuses on three tasks:
(1)
Studying in groups for the Honors Exam, Preparations include class discuss=
ions
and electronic communications. The exam will be a two-part exam: in Part I,
students comment on nine (of eighteen) identified quotations from major Br=
itish
and American literary works; in Part II, students provide a detailed analy=
sis
of two or three poems with a common theme.
(2)
Completing the independent research paper begun during the fall seminar. T=
he
final paper will be from five-to-six thousand words (due early in the
semester).
(3)
Designing, organizing, and presenting an academic conference. The culminat=
ing
event of the Honors seminar, the conference is based on students’
research projects. It is presented to an audience of faculty, students, fa=
mily
and friends. Further, a website may be created to preserve the results of =
the
conference.
Tentative
Spring 2013 Semester Class Dates:
Monday
at 6:30 pm: January 28, February 4, 20, 25, March 4, 11, 18, April 8, 15, =
22,
29, May 6, 13.
Wednesday
at 1:40 pm: January 30, February 6, 13, 27, March 6, 13, 20, April 3, 10, =
17,
24, May 1, 8, 15
[For some reason there seem to be fewer Mondays than Wednesdays, but go know.]<= o:p>
Spring Dead=
lines
to keep in mind (dates are approximate and subject to change):
Honors Essays must be
submitted (final version) on: Friday,
March 8, 2013
2013 Honors Exam will=
take
place roughly on: Friday April 5, 2013
2013 Honors Conferenc=
e will
take place roughly on: Wedne=
sday May
8, 2013 in President's Conference Rooms A and B, Rosenthal Library
Contact
information:
David Richter
Office Hours are 4:30=
-5:45
Monday, 12:15-1:30 Wednesday and by appointment
Office is Klapper 639;
telephone there is 718-997-4667 (voicemail is broken)
Home address/phone: 2=
01 West
89th Street, New York NY 10024; 212-580-3336
Website: http://peopl=
e.qc.cuny.edu/Faculty/david.Richter/Pages/Default.aspx
This syllabus is base=
d on,
and occasionally plagiarized from, syllabi for previous honors seminars by=
Fred
Buell and Andrea Walkden, who have stressed to me the absolute need for to=
tal
commitment to organization and clarity of expectations and deadlines.
[1] For
example, Kevin Puts' Silent Night<=
/i>
(2012, won the Pulitzer Prize) based on Christian Carion's French film