Course Details

ENGL 223 - Literary Adaptations on Film

Since the birth of cinema, literature and film have been entwined. We will explore how artists use these two mediums to tell stories, how they uniquely engage in narrative conventions, and how their dramatic features contrast. Students will compare and contrast the elements of fiction (character, theme, plot, setting, point-of-view, voice, symbolism) and the elements of film (character, theme, plot, setting, direction, sound, editing, acting) across a variety of literature and films. This course is interested in the relationship between these two mediums: What makes for a successful adaptation? Is faithfulness necessary, or do filmmakers need to exercise their creativity in order to effectively tell stories? What limitations, whether genuine or perceived, does the cinematic medium have compared to literature? (“The book was better than the movie!”) And are screenplays literature, or just cogs in the greater cinematic machine?
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