Literature and film
B McFarlane
12 points * 4 hours per week (including screening) * First semester * Clayton * Available to students from all campuses
This subject explores the relations between literature and film largely by focusing on the phenomenon of adaptation from one medium to another. It involves consideration of how two notably different sign systems - the purely verbal and the audiovisual moving image - construct narrative, of the kinds of narrational procedures each employs, of what is transferable from the verbal to the film text and what, linked intransigently to the verbal mode, requires adaptation proper if an equivalent is sought. The subject will involve the study of two authors, Shakespeare and Greene, both of whom have been much filmed. It will draw on structuralist and semiotic theory as necessary among other possible theoretical approaches.
Assessment
Class paper (2000 words): 30% * Long essay (5000 words): 50% * Class test (2000 words): 20%
Prescribed texts
Shakespeare W Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), Henry V Penguin
Shakespeare W Romeo and Juliet Penguin
Greene G Brighton Rock Penguin
Greene G `The basement room' in The third man and The fallen idol Penguin
Greene G The end of the affair Penguin
Greene G The honorary consul Penguin
Bordwell D and Thompson K Film art: An introduction 4th edn, McGraw-Hill