English 399W -01 & -02
english honorS Seminar:
adaptation of narrative across media
Prof. David Richter
The Seminar:
Shall we read the novel or wait for the movie to come out? We expect that popular novels will
become films, that successful films will made into operas1, and that comic book characters will
show up in Broadway musicals. J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit, the prequel to Lord of the Rings,
has been transformed into an animated film, into two live-action films to be released next year, a
graphic novel (adapted by Dixon and Deming), and, like some other quest fantasies, into two roleplaying video games. Jane Austen's most popular novel, Pride and Prejudice, has been made into
two films set in Regency England and transposed into other films set in present day London
(Bridget Jones's Diary), India (Bride and Prejudice) and Utah (A Latter-Day Comedy).
We will focus on the differences in the ways stories are told in prose, in film, in graphic designs,
the storytelling practices and strategies and techniques that operate within specific media (and resist
translation), along with the changes the process of adaptation forces, not only in the manner of
telling, but in what can be told. Inevitably, we will be examining and arguing about the social,
cultural, and political motives that may underlie these changes. These questions will bring us into
contact, at least, with some of the controversies within contemporary narrative theory.
There is a tendency to treat adaptation as a one-dimensional process--to begin and end by asking
what has gotten lost in translation--particularly when the "original" is a respected literary text and the
adaptation is a movie which, most of the time, is as forgettable as so many movies are. But
adaptation involves interpretation, a process of creative destruction, and two film adaptations can
present very different interpretations, as we see in Laurence Olivier's and Kenneth Branagh's
versions of Shakespeare's Henry V, which read into the same text opposing attitudes toward
patriotism and war. Deference to the original prose narrative can't be the whole story, in any case,
since many canonical texts are adaptations of texts that would otherwise have been forgotten.
Shakespeare's Othello was adapted from "Un capitano Moro," a short tale by Giovan Battista
1
For example, Kevin Puts' Silent Night (2012, won the Pulitzer Prize) based on Christian Carion's French film
Joyeux Noël (2005).
1|Page
Giraldi (aka Cinthio), and it's clear that there a great deal was gained in the translation.
Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida was taken from Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, behind which
we can glimpse Boccaccio's Filostrato and, a long way back of that, Homer's Iliad. There we can
see adaptive interpretations engaged in an elaborate process of creative destruction, each new work
a genuine rethinking and reframing of the earlier work, and laymen and scholars alike can argue
whether what emerged was successful or not.
We should add that adaptations are often not respectful in the least: sometimes, in the hands of a
satirist, the destruction part is done with malice aforethought, as with Martin Rowson's "graphic
novel" version of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, an oppositional adaptation, adaptation as critique,
with Rowson using film noir imagery -- drawn from the Howard Hawks film version of Raymond
Chandler's The Big Sleep -- to parody the iconic modernist poem.
We will not be interested primarily in safe and faithful reproductions of originals, but in
adaptations that take artistic liberties, like Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park (based on Jane
Austen's novel, letters and juvenilia), ones that re-code the narrative for a different culture like
Akira Kurosawa's Ran (based on Shakespeare's King Lear), or ones that challenge the rules of their
own medium by attempting an absolutely literal translation of the prose text, like Eric Rohmer's
Die Marquise von O taken from the 1808 short story of that name by the German romantic writer
Heinrich von Kleist. And at some point we will brave the encounter with Adaptation (2002), the
adaptation about adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze and based on The Orchid Thief by Susan
Orlean, with a screenplay about the perils and frustrations of screenwriters who find themselves
locked into a death-waltz with the writer whose work is being adapted.
In addition to the texts mentioned above, the seminar will include adaptations such as John
Huston's The Dead (based on James Joyce's novella in Dubliners) and Terry Zwigoff's Ghost
World (based on Daniel Clowes's graphic novel).
Our discussion of the adaptations of paratexts will be designed to model the kind of formal and
cultural analysis that you should pursue in your Honors Essay. As you will discover, there aren't
any hard and fast rules for creating successful adaptations, skilled and experienced readers and film
viewers will differ about whether adaptations are successful, while the theory of adaptation is now
and has been for decades a site of heated argument over basic principles. Our aim will be not to
settle questions once and for all, but to appreciate why we keep asking them, and to join in the
ongoing conversation.
Students will work on individually chosen writing projects, leading to a research paper of around
5000-6000 words whose first draft will be submitted at the end of the semester. The final draft will
be submitted during the second semester of the Honors Seminar.
Learning Goals
You should gain a sense of the problems and processes involved in the adaptation of a narrative
from one medium to another.
You should learn how adaptations of narrative address social, cultural, and political concerns.
2|Page
You should learn about storytelling practices, strategies, and techniques in prose fiction, film and
graphic narrative.
You should recognize and analyze elements of prose fiction, film, and graphic narrative, the
changes in both story and discourse that occur in the process of adaptation, and the effects of those
changes.
In addition, you should generate your own interpretation of the aims and problems of adaptation
in a particular story, film, or graphic narrative.
You will learn to conduct original research, attentive both to the conventions of literary analysis
and the boundaries of disciplinary thinking.
You should learn how to read academic writing on adaptations, and how to use that writing as a
springboard for your own interpretations.
You will find and incorporate relevant source materials into your writing, using appropriate
scholarly recourses such as books, journals, indexes, online catalogues, web search engines, and
libraries. You will also learn correct citation methods (Chicago style, MLA).
NOTE: The grades I shall give you in the seminar are different from the determination at the end
of the year whether you receive honors and what level of honors (honors, high honors, highest
honors) it might be. Those distinctions are awarded by the Honors Committee which makes its
determination, not on your fulfillment of the course requirements given below, but solely on the
basis of your performance on the Honors essay, your performance on the Honors examination,
your overall GPA and your GPA in English.
Course Requirements
Attendance and Participation (15%)
Regular attendance and active participation are essential. Plan to attend every class meeting and to
arrive on time, especially when we have guests visiting the class. If an absence is unavoidable, it is
your responsibility to obtain any materials, notes, and instructions that you have missed. For a
classroom to be truly collaborative, everyone must feel comfortable expressing his or her ideas.
We need to respond to each other with respect, even if we do not agree.
Open Class Blog (15%)
From the second week of the semester, you are required to produce a weekly blog post. Each post
should be the result of 15-20 minutes of concentrated thinking and writing or at least one
paragraph long (approx. 200 words). Make sure that your post is timely: that it reflects critically
on a recent or future reading, draws connections to previous discussions and readings or
comments constructively on someone else’s post. You will not receive credit if your post repeats
what has been said in class or written on other students' blogs. I will read your posts and respond to
them on the class blog at least once a week. I may also refer to posts during class meetings and you
should feel free to do the same.
3|Page
Nancy Foasberg, the Humanities librarian who will be working with you on your Honors Essays,
will also be responding on the class blog, when appropriate. Please may sure to read her advice
and follow her instructions carefully.
The URL for our Adaptation class blog is at http://honorsenglish2013.qwriting.org/ ; you have to
log in with your Qwriting username and password. Directions for creating your own blog are to be
found on the first post on the course blog. The password that you will need to log on as an
"author" of the class blog is ric399 and the blog number (which you will need to link YOUR blog to
the COURSE blog) is 3717. I am assuming that most of you already have a Qwriting account, in
which case you just use your current name and password. If this is your first course with a blog,
then you will first need to create a personal Qwriting account, and the directions are at the URL,
qwriting.org
Oral Presentation (10%)
A 10-minute oral presentation on a course “key word” followed by a short (5-minute) class Q
and A. Please consult the forthcoming oral presentation assignment sheet for further guidelines.
Research Essay (60%)
The formal writing assignment will be a 18-25 page (typed/double spaced/12 pt. font) research
essay on a topic developed by you in consultation with me. (There will also be a process of peer
review. Some of your classmates, ones who are working on similar topics, perhaps, will read your
essay and respond to it. You will also do peer review on other students' essays.)
We will be working on these essays across the length of the semester and into the next, and the
assignment will include four formal stages (as well as a variety of informal ones). These four formal
stages are:
1. Draft Prospectus (10%)
2. Revised Prospectus and Annotated Bibliography (15%)
3. Preliminary Essay Draft (25%)
4. Peer Review (10%)
After winter break, assuming that you are continuing in the Honors program:
5. Revised Draft and Argument Abstract
We’ll discuss each stage in more detail as the semester progresses. Due dates are indicated on the
syllabus. All written assignments are to be submitted both digitally and in hard copy, unless
otherwise indicated.
Conferences
I will arrange one-on-one conferences a couple of times during the semester, one to discuss your
prospectus draft and one to discuss your essay draft in progress. If you must reschedule a
conference, please let me know 24 hours in advance. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee that the
conference can be rescheduled.
4|Page
Required Texts:
NOTE: Most of the required literary and critical texts will be ordered and available from the
Queens College bookstore. Films and some of the literary and critical texts for the course will be
available online via BlackBoard. The films will be in Flash Video format and can be streamed on
your personal computers or any other mechanism that plays FLV files. The links for streaming
will be on BlackBoard.
Required Texts:
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep
Daniel Clowes: Ghost World (Bb)
T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land
James Joyce: "The Dead"
Heinrich von Kleist: "The Marquise of O" (Bb)
Susan Orlean: The Orchid Thief
Martin Rowson: The Waste Land (Bb)
William Shakespeare: King Lear
Highly Recommended Textbooks about Narrative:
I've said "highly recommended" but unless you already know them, these texts are really required
for those who need to learn the basics about narrative in prose, on film, and in graphic (comics)
form. If you're vague about basic narrative concepts (such as story and discourse, storyworlds,
framing, gaps, the implied author, the unreliable narrator) you definitely NEED Abbott. (I've put
his chapter on Adaptation onto BlackBoard.) His book has the gift for lucidly explaining difficult
concepts. If you haven't had a serious intro to film course, and you are planning to write about a
film adaptation, you NEED Bordwell/Thompson. Ditto McCloud for those working on graphic
narrative, either fiction or memoir.
David H. Richter: A Narrative Primer (these are excerpts from my textbooks on narrative, Reading
Stories and Narrative/Theory). The books are out of print, I've put my materials on BlackBoard. )
Porter Abbott: The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (QC Bookstore). You probably need
this book. It is or will be at the bookstore. It's also $22 new via Amazon Prime; used copies are
about the same price once you add postage.
David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson: Film Art: An Introduction. This is a very expensive
book ($90+) in the latest (9th) edition. But you don't need the latest edition to get Bordwell and
Thompson's clear and well illustrated explanations of how films tell stories and create cinematic
art. Used copies of the 8th edition (2006) are available online for less than $10 including postage.
I didn't order this at the bookstore because they would be ordering the latest edition.
5|Page
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics. This 1994 book is $12.49 new via Amazon Prime. If
you're planning to work on a graphic novel or memoir for your honors paper you need to buy this
book. I will put short excerpts onto BlackBoard for our use when we work on Rowson and
Clowes.
Tentative Schedule:
Note that, because of how the holidays fall this autumn, the dates of the corresponding Monday
and Wednesday classes diverge in weird ways. Mark your calendars.
Before class starts:
Please read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and watch the Joe Wright film, which is already
online, you get to it via BlackBoard. Write up, in 1000 words or so, your impressions about the
film, your sense of the way it "interprets" the novel, whether you think it was or was not successful
and why. Email it to me before the first class (to david.richter@qc.cuny.edu ). This is a preliminary
diagnostic paper, and while I will read it carefully, it will not affect your grade (unless you don't do
it).
Week I.
Monday evening August 27; Wednesday August 29:
Organizational Meeting. – Discussion of film adaptation of literary texts: literal and free
translations, interpretations, re-creations. Prose fiction: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. Film:
Joe Wright, dir.: Pride and Prejudice (2005).
Focus: How is Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice an "interpretation" of Austen's novel, and how is
that interpretation carried out? Give me your pre-course ideas on your blogs before class begins.
September 3 is Labor Day; college is closed.
Week II.
Wednesday September 5, Monday evening September 10:
Film bootcamp. Treatments, screenplays, films. How films tell stories. Editing and
cinematography.
September 17-18 is Rosh Hashanah; no classes are scheduled.
Week III.
Wednesday September 12, Monday evening September 24:
Film bootcamp continues.
Preliminary and relatively unspecific discussion of three other Pride and Prejudice films with
different relationships to the Austen text:
(1) Pride and Prejudice (1940, Robert Z. Leonard, dir, Aldous Huxley scr);
(2) Bride and Prejudice (2004, Gurinder Chadha, dir. and scr., Paul Berges, scr.);
(3) Bridget Jones' Diary (2001, Sharon Maguire dir, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis scr., based
on Helen Fielding's novel).
6|Page
September 25-26 is Yom Kippur; no classes scheduled.
Week IV.
Wednesday September 19; Monday evening October 1:
Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep.
Howard Hawks, dir: The Big Sleep (1946)
Popular fiction and film noir, the rules and conventions. How does the adaptation differ from the
novel?
October 8 is Columbus Day; college is closed.
Week V.
Wednesday October 3; Monday class meets unusually on Wednesday evening October 10:
T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land
Is there a narrative, or a set of narratives, hidden in The Waste Land?
Week VI.
Monday evening October 15, Wednesday October 17:
How comics tell stories. Some hints from Scott McCloud. Confrontational adaptation.
Graphic text: Martin Rowson: The Waste Land
Week VII.
Monday October 22, Wednesday October 24:
Film adaptation of graphic text:
Daniel Clowes: Ghost World
Terry Zwigoff: Ghost World
Week VIII.
Monday October 29, Wednesday October 31:
Do we sometimes need to read the book to be able to watch the movie?
Special problems with filming modernist texts.
James Joyce: The Dead.
John Huston dir: The Dead.
November 1: Deadline for Honors Essay Prospectus.
Week IX.
Monday November 5, Wednesday November 7:
What happens if nothing gets lost at the movies? Literalization in Eric Rohmer.
Heinrich von Kleist: "The Marquise of O."
Eric Rohmer: Die Marquise von O.
7|Page
Week X.
Monday November 12, Wednesday November 14:
Improving on Jane Austen, or betraying the Mistress?
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
Patricia Rozema: Mansfield Park
Week XI.
Monday November 19, Wednesday November 21:
Cultural transformations, Shakespeare meets the samurai movie.
William Shakespeare: King Lear
Akira Kurosawa: Ran
Honors Essay Revised Prospectus with Bibliography due November 21.
Week XII.
Monday November 26, Wednesday November 28:
Postmodern adaptation, adaptation about adaptation about....
Susan Orlean: The Orchid Thief
Spike Jonze, dir.: Adaptation
Week XIII.
Monday December 3, Wednesday December 5:
This week is all about writing the Honors essay.
Week XIV.
Monday December 10, Wednesday December 12:
This week is all about writing the Honors essay.
[Week XV.
Monday December 17, Wednesday December 19:]
First draft of the Honors Essay is due on your class date.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------During the Christmas break, I will return your first drafts with comments and you will start working
on further drafts leading to the final draft in early March.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8|Page
Spring Semester
Full-class work focuses on three tasks:
(1) Studying in groups for the Honors Exam, Preparations include class discussions and electronic
communications. The exam will be a two-part exam: in Part I, students comment on nine (of
eighteen) identified quotations from major British and American literary works; in Part II, students
provide a detailed analysis of two or three poems with a common theme.
(2) Completing the independent research paper begun during the fall seminar. The final paper will
be from five-to-six thousand words (due early in the semester).
(3) Designing, organizing, and presenting an academic conference. The culminating event of the
Honors seminar, the conference is based on students’ research projects. It is presented to an
audience of faculty, students, family and friends. Further, a website may be created to preserve the
results of the conference.
Tentative Spring 2013 Semester Class Dates:
Monday at 6:30 pm: January 28, February 4, 20, 25, March 4, 11, 18, April 8, 15, 22, 29, May 6,
13.
Wednesday at 1:40 pm: January 30, February 6, 13, 27, March 6, 13, 20, April 3, 10, 17, 24, May
1, 8, 15
[For some reason there seem to be fewer Mondays than Wednesdays, but go know.]
Spring Deadlines to keep in mind (dates are approximate and subject to change):
Honors Essays must be submitted (final version) on: Friday, March 8, 2013
2013 Honors Exam will take place roughly on: Friday April 5, 2013
2013 Honors Conference will take place roughly on: Wednesday May 8, 2013 in President's
Conference Rooms A and B, Rosenthal Library
9|Page
Contact information:
David Richter
Office Hours are 4:30-5:45 Monday, 12:15-1:30 Wednesday and by appointment
Office is Klapper 639; telephone there is 718-997-4667 (voicemail is broken)
Home address/phone: 201 West 89th Street, New York NY 10024; 212-580-3336
Website: http://people.qc.cuny.edu/Faculty/david.Richter/Pages/Default.aspx
This syllabus is based on, and occasionally plagiarized from, syllabi for previous honors seminars
by Fred Buell and Andrea Walkden, who have stressed to me the absolute need for total
commitment to organization and clarity of expectations and deadlines.
10 | P a g e