Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis 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%