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Literature and Cinema

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core NSUS1EN212 4

Course Coordinator and Team:                   SES Faculty

Email of course coordinator:                       pcbabed@aud.ac.in 

Pre-requisites: No

Course Description:

This course will look closely into the ‗formal‘ and ‗narratological‘ relation between cinema and literature, with the help of a few works of fiction (and other forms) made into films. The course will introduce various ways in which literature and the moving image converge and diverge; as well as correspond through the theory of ‗narrative‘, which is also a source of long conflict through much of the history of cinema. The inter-dependence of the two art forms is full of the ambiguity that both the arts collectively and individually re-present, effectively ensuring that the fruition of the collaboration is often far from simple. There are various levels of complexity involved in this relationship but since this is a B.A level course, the content is designed keeping in mind largely the dynamics of adaptation. The texts/films have been chosen in such a way that each have not only withstood the discontents of adaptation but have been able to contribute to their own forms in either literature or cinema and have managed to expend them.

Course Objectives:

The primary objective is to understand the politics and process of narrative and its possible modes of transference when literary forms are adapted into cinematic forms. The course would like to ask how the process of signification in cinema vary and collide with literary sources, how each form makes their own claims to the narrative and what are the major debates in world cinema around the problems of adaptation.

Course Outcomes:

The course will involve understanding of elementary concepts of cinema, cinematic language and practice, and the basics of adaptation theory apart from also reading into the various narrative strategies of genres like the novel, theatre, and science-fiction. It is hoped that students will be able to assess cinematic adaptations not only as a compendium of attractive images but also as a method of translating textual material into a visual mode of storytelling. The creative component in the assessment will encourage students to apply the concepts learnt during the course and demonstrate a critical understanding of the relationship between a written and a performative text.

Brief description of the modules:

Module 1: Form, Theories, Practices

This introductory module aims to familiarize students with the basics of genre and form in the two mediums before moving on to theories around adaptation as impacted by changes in the notion of the text and the figure of the author.

  • Form in literature: various genres and narrative techniques (drama, science fiction, novel)
  • Form in cinema (adaptation of drama, science fiction, novel) and basic concepts and language of cinema (narrative, plot, story, documentary, diegetic, non-diegetic, miseen-scène, sound, lighting, editing, camera angles etc.)
  • Theories of adaptation and question of origin and authorship

Essential readings:

  • James Monaco, ―The Language of Film: Signs and Syntax,‖ Chapter 3 in How to Read a Film: The World of Movies Media and Multimedia. New York: OUP, 2009, pp. 170-249. Linda Hutcheon, ―On the Art of Adaptation‖, Daedalus, Vol. 133, No. 2 (2004), pp. 108-111. MIT Press. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027920
  • Thomas Leitch, ―Adaptation Studies at a Crossroads‖, Adaptation, 2008, Vol 1, No. 1, pp. 63-77.
  • Robert Stam, ―Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation.‖ Literature and Cinema: Readings. Delhi: Worldview, 2018. Pp. 171-198.

Module 2: Cinema from dramatic literature

This module will look into how Shakespeare has been adapted to cinemas.

  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1606)
  • Akira Kurosawa, Throne of Blood (1957)
  • Vishal Bhardwaj, Maqbool (2003)

Essential readings:

  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1606), Arden edition.
  • Anthony Dawson. ―Cross-cultural Interpretation: Reading Kurosawa Reading Shakespeare. A Concise Companion to Shakespeare on Screen, edited by Diana E. Henderson. USA, UK, Australia: Blackwell, 2006.
  • Keiko I. Mcdonald. ―Noh into Film: Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood. Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 39, No. 1, Japanese Cinema (Winter 1987), pp. 36-41.
  • Zvika Serper. ―The Bloodied Sacred Pine Tree: A Dialectical Depiction of Death in Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and Ran. Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Summer 2000), pp. 13-27.
  • Moinak Biswas. ―Mourning and Blood-ties: Macbeth in Mumbai. Journal of the Moving Image.
  • Poonam Trivedi. ―‗Filmi Shakespeare. Literature and Cinema: Readings. Delhi: Worldview, 2018. Pp. 112-133

Module 3: The Science Fiction

This module is about adapting science-fiction into cinema making use of the inherent visual properties of this genre.

  • Arthur C Clark, The Sentinel (1948)/ Encounter in the Dawn (1953)
  • Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Module 4: The Novella

This module is about the wide-canvas literary novel and how cinema, keeping the mind the limitations of time and narrative unity, manages to adapt them.

  • Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (1912)
  • Lucino Visconti, Death in Venice (1971)

OR

Colonialism and Counterculture

This module would look at critique of grand narratives in literature and cinema.

  • Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902)
  • Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979)

Module 5: Revision of core concepts

This module aims to consolidate the learning outcomes by reinforcing key concepts taught during the transaction of this course, highlighting interconnections between the various modules and probing questions for further research.

Assessment Plan:

S.No

Assessment

Weightage

1

Class participation

10%

2

Assignment (short film/individual creative project)

40%

3

Final

50%

References

  • James Monaco, ―The Language of Film: Signs and Syntax,‖ Chapter 3 in How to Read a Film: The World of Movies Media and Multimedia. New York: OUP, 2009, pp. 170-249. Linda Hutcheon, ―On the Art of Adaptation‖, Daedalus, Vol. 133, No. 2 (2004), pp. 108-111. MIT Press. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027920
  • Thomas Leitch, ―Adaptation Studies at a Crossroads‖, Adaptation, 2008, Vol 1, No. 1, pp. 63-77.
  • Robert Stam, ―Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation.‖ Literature and Cinema: Readings. Delhi: Worldview, 2018. Pp. 171-198.
  • Tymn, Marshall B. ―Science Fiction: A Brief History and Review of Criticism.‖ American Studies International, vol. 23, no. 1, 1985, pp. 41–66. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41278745. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
  • Roberts, Adam. Science Fiction. USA and Canada: Routledge, 2006.
  • James, Edward and Farah Mendlesohn, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. UK and NY: CUP, 2003.
  • Freedman, Carl. Critical Theory and Science Fiction. Middletown and Connecticut: Wesleyan UP, 2000.
  • Suvin, Darko. Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction. Houndmills and London: Macmillan Press, 1988.
  • Suvin, Darko. ―On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre.‖ College English, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Dec., 1972), pp. 372-382. URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/375141.
  • Bould, Mark et al. The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. London and NY: Routledge, 2009.
  • Robert Poole. ―The Myth of Progress: 2001: A Space Odyssey.‖ Limiting Outer Space, ed. Alexander C. T. Geppert. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
  • George P. Stein. ―Death in Venice: From Literature to Film.‖ The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1982), pp. 63-70. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3332193
  • Walter Murch and Michael Ondaatje. ―apocalypse then and now.‖ Film Comment, Vol. 37, No. 3 (MAY/JUNE 2001), pp. 43-47. Film Society of Lincoln Center. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43578447
  • Jamie Sherry. ―Paratextual Adaptation: Heart of Darkness as Hearts of Darkness via Apocalypse Now.‖ A Companion to Literature, Film and Adaptation, ed. Deborah Cartmell. Oxford: Wiley‐ Blackwell, 2012. Pp. 374-390.
  • Robert Shaughnessy. The Routledge Guide to William Shakespeare. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Ania Loomba. Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism. New York: OUP, 2002. Gabriel Egan. Shakespeare. Edinburgh UP.
  • Julie Sanders. Adaptation and Appropriation. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. Deborah Cartmell. Interpreting Shakespeare on Screen. London: Macmillan, 2000.
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