1
CRS3002 Cultural Studies on Film and Literature (Spring, 2006)
Prof. Y. T. LUK
Course Details:
The objective of this course is to acquaint students with the kindred relationships
between film and literature as well as to help them develop a more critical awareness
to appreciate these two media; it also call to their attention approaches available from
the cultural studies perspectives such as race, gender, ideology and sexuality, etc. The
following areas about film and literature will be explored:
Week I. Introduction to Film Studies and Cultural Studies:
a. The Emergency of Cultural Studies and its application to the analysis of popular
film------ Read: “Andy Willis’ ‘Cultural studies and popular film’ in
Approaches to Popular Film, eds. Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich,
(Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995), pp.173-191.
b. Writing about the movies: Your Audience and the Aims of Film Criticism---Read
Chapter 1: “Writing about the movies” in Timothy Corrigan’s A Short Guide
to Writing about Film ((Longmann,1998), pp.1-15.
Week II. Introduction to the art of film:
a. An elucidation of basic film terms, i.e., cinematography, montage, editing,
shots(long shot, middle shot, close-up, panning, tracking, fade-in, fade-out,
dissolve, superimposition, etc)
b. Comparing these terms with literary tropes such as symbol, metaphor,
description, exposition, etc.)
Visual aids will be used to discuss possibilities from words to visual
images: We will be exploring generic and mediumistic exigencies of film
and literature, in particular, film and novel, or film and drama ; and their
mutual borrowings, e.g., cinematic techniques in plays, novels, etc.
To illustrate the above, we will view some extracts from David Lean’s Dr.
Zhivago and Roman Polanski's Repulsion.(Video tapes available in Audiovisual library)
Read: Ch.1"Film and Literature” in T'ien yin yu wen-hsueh (電影與文學)
Ch. 1: "The Film and Art” in Cinema as Art
We will compare the following:
2
a. Time and space in film and the novel.
b. Audiences’ attitude towards reality in film and the novel.
c. Comparison of film editing and linguistic trope.
d. Comparison of visual image and imaginative image.
e. Figurative language, symbolism, interior monologue, and point of
view in both film and the novel.
Week III. Differences between film and the novel:
Read: Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness and view Francis Ford Coppola Apocalypse
Redux(現代啟示錄再生版 )
: George Bluestone ”Limits of The Novels and the Film” in Novels into Film
Week IV: Issues of race, ideology, politics , hegemony and Post-colonialsim in the
story and the film.
Week V: Liu Yichang’s(劉以鬯) Duidao (對倒) and Wong Kar-wai’s (王家衛)In
the Mood for Love.(花樣年華)
Week VI: 王安憶《長恨歌》和關錦鵬電影改編
Week VII: Differences between film and Drama or the theatre:
a. Time and space in film and the theatre.
b. Audiences’ attitude towards reality in film and the theatre.
c. Differentiation between films and photographed stage plays,
Thornton Wilder’s Own Town (dramatic text) and LD version: A Portrayal of
Universalism in Localism, Realism in Abstractionism.
Week VIII: Continue with Week VII.
Week IX. Wang Wayne's Chinese Box (中國 匣 ): Hong Kong as Cultural Imaginary
Week X. Fruit Chan’s The Longest Summer ( 去年煙花特別多 ): Hong Kong and
1997.
Week XI: and Week XII : Cultural Studies and Media Racism: The Year of the
Dragon (龍年)-- Racism Against Asian and Asian Themes in Hollywood Movies
Read: Steve Neale’s “Stereotype and Difference,” Screen Education,
Autumn/Winter, 1979/80, 33-37.
Louise Spence and Robert Stan’s “Racism in the Cinema: Proposal for a
Methodological Investigation,” Critical Arts, vol.2, no.4, 6-11.
Cho, Cindy; Hsia, James, Hsu, Andy, Wang, Bea. Yellow Myths on the Silver
Screen, MIT Students Papers done as part of an Asian Studies class, 1999.
3
Ho, Jeffrey B. “The Yellow Menace in American Popular Film: 1991through
1995”, paper presented to: Popular Culture Association Conference, Orlando,
Florida, April 11th, 1998.
Week XIII: Richard Mason’s The World of Suzie Wong and the Movie
Basic texts:
Graeme Turner, Film as Social Practice (Routledge: London & New York, 1996)
Jill Nelmes, ed. An Introduction to Film Studies (Routledge: London & New York,
1999)
Ralph Stevenson and Jean R. debris, The Cinema as Art (Penguin Books, 1989)
Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies (New Jersey: Englewood Cliff, Prentice Hall,
1993)
Yuntong LUK, Ten-yin yu wen-hsueh (電影與文學), (Taiwan: The Chinese
Culture University Press, l984)
____________,中西比較戲 劇研究：從比較文學 到後殖民論述, (臺灣駱駝出版
社, 一九九八)
Thomas Luk & James, P. Rice, eds. Hong Kong in Western Film and Literature:
Before and After Suzie (The Chinese University of Hong Kong: New Asia Academic
Bulletin, no.18, 2002)
Richard Mason, The World of Suzie Wong (Pegasus Books, 1994).
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.(Any edition)
Thornton Wilder, Our Town (Any edition)
Stuart McDougal, Made Into Movies: From Literature to Film (New York: Holt,
Reinhart and Winston, 1985)
John Storey, Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture: Theories and
Methods (Edinburgh University Press, 1996)
_________, ed. What is Cultural Studies? A reader (London: New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1996).
Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich, eds Approaches to Popular Film,. (Manchester
and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995),
Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film ((Longmann, 1998)
Steve Neale, “Stereotype and Difference,” Screen Education, Autumn/Winter,
1979/80, 33-37.
Louise Spence and Robert Stan, “Racism in the Cinema: Proposal for a
Methodological Investigation,” Critical Arts, vol.2, no.4, 6-11.
George Bluestone” Limits of The Novels and the Film” in Novels into Film
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975),pp.1-64.
Requirements: two papers, and in-class presentations.
40%: each paper
20% Tutorial presentation.