230068 Teaching Adaptations: Texts, Music, Movies (S) (SoSe 2018)

Fiction is a medium which repeats and replicates itself. A whole branch of literary theory is devoted to the way texts interact with one another, by what method or technique, and with what effect either on the meaning of the work or its reception. Beyond the idea of "intertextuality" (which took a narrow view on the interdependence of literary texts such as, for example, Homer's epic Odyssee, Alfred Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" and James Joyce's novel Ulysses).
Instead, adaptations work in the intermedial network of written texts, visual images, and sound. Thus, we find plays adapted from prose narratives (most of Shakespeare's plays have a variety of precedents in narrative fiction), novels converted into film (or theatre), and very many literary figures easily transgress, though barely without changes, the boundaries of narrative, stage and music. In our class, we will look at a number of significant literary texts presented in a variety media, from page to stage even into the web, from (print-)letter to (musical-)note to (filmo/graphic) image.
Exemplary cases in our class include William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Source>Play>Movie/s>Pop Songs), Edgar Alan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" (Text>Graphic Novel>Pop Song), and Samuel Beckett's short play What Where (stage play>experimental filmed theatre>realistic movie).
Most importantly, we will keep an eye on how to teach such adaptations within the framework of EFL curricula and in the classroom. This means we are going to focus on the (in-) adequacy of different methodical frameworks, and discuss possible ways to find appropriate means that help creating students awareness of how different media work, with what effects on recipients.

Requirements for participation, required level

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Bibliography

t.b.a. in class