Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis The aims of the subject are to extend the student's study of narrative modes through a comparative study of film and literature; to encourage a close, critical reading of texts in two media; and to explore a critical and theoretical methodology for the study of adaptation. The following will be studied in detail: (a) Aspects of narrative - form and function. A comparative study of narrative procedures in film and prose fiction. (b) Five or six texts which exist as novels and as film, so as to compare ways in which the two different media effect and affect narrative. (c) A comparison of two different signifying systems. (d) Some problems of adaptation. What can be transferred from one medium to another? What requires adaptation? Are some kinds of novel more susceptible to film than others? (e) The question of `fidelity' in relation to adaptation. How possible or desirable is it? Factors involved other than fidelity - external production determinants.
Assessment Written (4000 words): 70% + Examinations (2 hours): 30%