389K/96 Syllabus



Plan II TC 603B

Instructor: Janet Swaffar

Office: EPS 3.166

Office hours: MW 11-12:30

Phone: 232-6376 or 471 4123 (main office)

Room: Mezes 1.122 MWF 11-12

Office hours: MW 9-10:30

Course Description

This course looks at how world literature and film have created on-going and multicultural dialogues, as both texts and films have been adapted, remade, rewritten, or improvised upon by writers and artists across time and national borders. Thus the focus of the course will be on how the works gets manipulated, and for what cultural purposes, as original messages in text, plot, and visual design are adapted for new audiences, yet with specific references to their sources and to the cultural authority of these sources. The changes that occur when a print genre becomes a visual narrative show how the assumptions and stereotypes of an original are modified in the new cultural context of the adaptation. Similarly, when a work is remade, the maker must reconsider, and sometimes rethink, such features as the narrative or filmmaker’s point of view, the episodic structure, and the choice of language, if the new version is to speak to and for its new audience.

Reflecting its origins in early nineteenth-century England, for example, the language of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice frequently mentions “civility,” and the protagonists use extremely formal speech. Both the 1940 Hollywood version and the BBC Series version of 1995 delete many turns of phrase that echo the book—but they substitute exchanges that also differ strikingly from one another, as they rewrite characters' exchanges into terms that their new audiences will recognize, and as they highlight new themes purportedly drawn from the originals. In this way a “high culture” work is popularized in ways that reflect the two different eras in which those popularizations occurred.

In this class, students will engage in analysis of these differences to identify the implied expectations of audiences viewing the film versions at given points of time. As a major tool to aid such cross-cultural analyses, a précis format (short one-page analyses) will be introduced as a tool to help students learn to identify meaning systems and key contrasts in narrative and visual characteristics. They will lead to discussions and longer analyses of how the films and texts change cultural markers in response to events outside them, as reflected in their changes of content and point of view. Examples will range from Shakespeare’s King Lear and its film adaptation, Kurosawa’s Ran, two versions of the science fiction classic Metropolis (von Harbou’s novel, Lang’s silent film and a look at the recent Japanese anime), and classic Westerns that come from abroad (how Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven, a western with the same myths but otherwise nothing like the classic Virginian).

In the initial weeks of class, the instructor and the group will work out the premises for cross-cultural and cross-genre analyses, taking examples in class time. By the fourth week the class will commence assessing other adaptations independently -- comparing a film and its adaptation -- in short oral and written presentations. By the final third of the semester, leading up to their semester projects, students will select their own novel/film combination in consultation with the instructor and present an oral version of a longer written paper, analyzing the cross-cultural implications of this adaptation.

Texts: King Lear, Pride and Prejudice, In Custody, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Virginian (available at the Co-op); In Custody, Metropolis are both out of print but available to order second-hand at Alibris on-line or as .pdf download.

Films ON RESERVE AT LAITS LAB: Ran, The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, Pride and Prejudice (2 versions), Metropolis (2 versions), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (2 versions). Excerpts to be provided in negotiation with presenters.

Grading:

3 Précis (one worksheet, two original) @ 5 each= 15% Presentation/Paper total = 45%

3 short writing assignments @ 5 each = 15% (with different points allotted

5 Blackboard entries: 10% for several different phases of the

Pair presentation of film/text 15% project; see Assignment sheet)

Syllabus: Spring, 2005

Plan II T C 603B

Janet Swaffar

Mezes 1.122 MWF 10-11

Note: All readings and viewings are due on the day indicated.

Specific reading, viewing, and writing assignments indicated for each class.

Films available at Mezes 2.104 Computer Media Lab under Swaffar, also in Undergraduate Library's Audio-Visual Library, 3rd floor.

Books available at the University Coop or as PDF files (Metropolis, In Custody)

Week 1: January 19 -- 21

Wed Goals for the semester: Focus on the rhetoric and method for analyses Introduction to the King Lear: Reading a scene from King Lear and comparing it to an in-class video excerpt from Ran

Viewing goal: identify 3 contrasts between the Shakespeare and Kurosawa versions.

**NOTE: In class, reading excerpt from King Lear, Act 1

Fri Identifying the conflict in Shakespeare’s play

Assigned reading: King Lear, Act I

*Reading goal: find three passages in which Lear talks about his responsibilities as King and his feelings about that role

*Précis/Essay connection: “compare/contrast" -- in class

Week 2: January 24 -- 28

Mon Identifying the audience for the play—the historical background

Assigned Reading: King Lear, Acts II & III, Booth et al. The Craft of Rhetoric, pp, 138-150.*

*Reading Goal: what ties matter? What social networks have to be upheld?

*Précis Assignment # 1: "issue and implication" worksheet

Wed Connecting the audience with the plays values and messages

Assigned Reading: King Lear, Acts IV & V

*Reading Goal: finding the symbols of loyalty

Fri View Ran to identify how a shift in gender rearranges the social and psychological issues presented in Shakespeare’s play

In class video: excerpts from Ran read in terms of a comparable scene in Shakespeare’s King Lear

*Group reading goal: discussion on culture and gender expectations

*Presentation demonstration in class: How to commentary adaptations (see assignment directions for details)

SIGN UP SHEET FOR PARTNER PRESENTATIONS

**NOTE: Begin Pride and Prejudice

*Reading goal: what can men, women do, what gives them pleasure, pain?

Take notes for your matrices

Week 3: January 31 -- February 4

Mon Social ladders and the ways to climb them

Assigned reading: Pride and Prejudice, Chapters – 1-34

*Reading goal: how reader recognizes “good” and “bad” manners

*Précis assignment #2 due: worksheet on Pride and Prejudice, Chps 30-34

Wed Reading the mores of another culture

Assigned reading: Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34-End

Discussion: Recreating standards for behavior in another time and place

*Blackboard assignment #1 due: a 100-150 word diary entry (either Jane or Darcy) regarding the events connected with the Netherfield ball or the events connected with Elizabeth’s visit to Pemberley--then comment on another entry in your group. Come to class prepared to talk about that entry and your comment.

Fri Reading the mores of another culture

Assigned reading: The Craft of Research--Part III--Making a Claim and Supporting It*

Discussion: Arguments, claims, reasons, evidence, warrants with regard to the values of another time and place, especially family

*Writing assignment #1 due: Contrasts or comparisons you see between contemporary "family values"--relationships with siblings, parents, responsibilities--and those Austen depicts (250-500 words maximum; see details in the Assignments)

Week 4: February 7 -- 11

Mon Romance and how times change depictions: a 1940s movie variant

Assigned reading: The Elements of Writing about Literature and Film, Chp. 4 & 5*

Assigned video: Pride and Prejudice (Garson/Olivier)--excerpts

*Viewing goal: what was kept, deleted, changed, and the implications for a viewing audience in the 1940s, who you think that audience was, and why?

*Student presentation to start discussion

Wed Romance and how media format and times change depictions: a 1995 popular series variant

Assigned video: Pride and Prejudice (Ehle / Firth)—excerpts

*Viewing goal: how faithful is the faithful recreation

*Student presentation to start discussion

Fri Faithful reproductions -- what do cameras narrate

Assigned reading: Mulvey*

Discussion:

*Blackboard assignment #2 due: pick a scene from the movie and comment on how the camera "narrates" the scene from a particular vantage point. Consider alternative approaches and how they might change the visual messages (100-150 words)--then comment on another entry in your group. Come to class prepared to talk about that entry and your comment.

Week 5: February 14 -- 18

Mon Cultural capitulations and their ghosts

Assigned reading: Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Butler, Bowden*

*Reading goal: Identify segments that convey specific behaviors or characteristics of the Dutch and their Sleepy Hollow and the outsider (Ichabod Crane) in terms of what adds or subtracts from standing in the community

*Writing assignment # 2 due: A 1 page analytic essay citing 2-3 typical examples of verbal irony (see The Elements of Writing about Literature and Film, Chp 1) and their implications (what was Irving critiquing?)

Wed Cartoons qua Disney as timeless, culturally sanitized entertainments

Assigned video : The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Disney)—excerpts

*Viewing goal: what was kept, deleted, changed, and the implications and identity of that audience

*Student presentation to start discussion

Fri Rewriting cultural capitulation as cultural clash: superstition versus rationalism

Assigned video : Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Orr,* Arnold*

*Viewing goal: what was kept, deleted, changed, and the implications and identity of the audience (+ Orr, Arnold's readings)

*Student presentation to start discussion

**NOTE: Assigned reading for Week 6: Begin In Custody

Week 6: February 21 -- 25

Mon Reading academic analyses: Desai

Assigned reading : Essays--Sharma,* Dodiya* (Mani, Upadhyay)

*Reading goal: Identifying what makes for strong / weak arguments

*Writing assignment #3 due: a 1-2 page comparison about what you learned from the essay, which one was more informative and why (250-500 words maximum; with reference to Part III of The Craft of Research)

Wed Reading the social norms of the "other" in Desai

Assigned reading: In Custody (PDF file)

*Reading goal: what was said explicitly about Indian society; what was implied and how

*Blackboard assignment #3 due: Personal experience (either in reading, seeing movies, or real life) that echoes or contrasts with 1-2 behaviors and interactions among the social groups depicted or discussed in this novel. Do you view these behaviors as culturally determined, that is, not likely to occur in the Western world you know, or as variants of general experience one could have anywhere (100-150 words). Please comment on another entry in your group. Come to class prepared to talk about that entry and your comment.

Fri Reading the social norms of the "other" in Desai

Assigned viewing: In Custody

*Viewing goal: what was kept, deleted, changed, and the implications and identity of the intended audience

*Student presentation to start discussion

SIGN UP SHEET FOR TOPICS, OPTIONAL CONSULTATION

Week 7: February 28 -- March 4

Mon Expressionism in art and literature

Assigned reading: Expressionism (handout)

*Précis assignment #3 due: Précis

.

Wed Sci-fi as Social Darwinism—parables of inequity and utopian visions

Assigned reading: Harbou, Metropolis (download a PDF with the out-of-print text from )

*Blackboard assignment #4 due: 3 types of language use or behaviors that illustrate Expressionism, what you did / did not understand about them -- read observations of others in your group, pick one you can talk about in class.

Fri Sci-fi as spectacle—visual realizations of the future and their implications with regard to late 1920s European and North American attitudes toward "traditional democratic ideals"

Assigned video: Theo von Harbou and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (PDF file)

*Viewing goal: what visual and thematic features of Expressionism, cinematic innovations, what visual effects still work, would not work today and why

*Student presentation to start discussion

SIGN UP SHEET FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS

Week 8: March 7 - 11

Mon Sci-fi as Anime

Assigned video : Metropolis, Drazen, Napier* (handouts)

*Viewing goal: what changes from the Harbou / Lang version

*Student presentation to start discussion

Wed-Fri NO CLASS

Individual consultations with the instructor: bring an abstract and initial research proposal for longer paper

****************************** SPRING BREAK ******************************

(Assigned reading: The Virginian)

Week 9: March 21 - 25

Mon The code of the West as male provenance

Assigned reading: Wister, The Virginian

*Background information:

*Reading goal: Identifying the myths and their implications for individuals

* Oral preparation: Locate 2 passages (by Chapter and page numbers) that talk about Wister's code of the West; briefly (250 words each) describe the event or verbal exchange related and speculate about the how/if/for whom the convictions expressed in it can be considered American traits or accepted practices

Wed Myths of the West

Assigned reading : Excerpts from Davis,* Graulich & Tatum * (Scharnhorst, Lamont)

*Reading goal: Three realities that conflict with or modify Wister's romanticized version

*Blackboard assignment #5 due: what you learned from the essays, which one was more informative and why (100-150 words). Please comment on another entry in your group. Come to class prepared to talk about that entry and your comment with reference to argument, evidence (see Craft of Rhetoric)

Fri The warrior code transplanted: Wild West turns Wild East

Assigned video : The Seven Samurai

*Viewing goal: what was kept, deleted, changed, and the implications and identity of that audience

*Student presentation to start discussion

Week 10: March 28, April 1

Tues The Western myth as warrior code

Assigned video : The Magnificent Seven

*Viewing goal: what was kept, deleted, changed, and the implications and identity of that audience

*Student presentation to start discussion

Wed Academic reviews versus popular reviews

Assigned search: Reviews of Samurai and Magnificent Seven

*Individual presentation goal: identifying claims, evidence, warrants

SIGN UP SHEET FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS, PHASE 3

Fri Research Plans: what search engines, bibliographies, plan of attack

*Blackboard assignment #6 due:.updated research summaries of what has been done and how this information will be used in your presentations / papers-- (100-150 words)--then comment on another entry in your group. Come to class prepared to talk about that entry and your comment.

SIGN UP SHEET FOR CONSULTATION--BRING PAPER DRAFT (4 PAGE MINIMUM--)+ ABSTRACT, RESEARCH SUMMARY IF NOT INTEGRATED IN PAPER DRAFT (AS ABOVE)

Week 11: April 4 - 8—NO CLASSES—CONSULTATIONS ON PAPERS

Individual consultations with the instructor by appointment

Week 12: April 11 - 15

Mo - Fri Oral presentations of papers with handouts or PowerPoint, film or text excerpts as needed (see assignment instructions)

Week 13: April 18 - 22

Mo - Fri Oral presentations of papers with handouts or PowerPoint, film or text excerpts as needed (see assignment instructions)

Week 14: April 25 - 29

Mo - Fri Oral presentations of papers with handouts or PowerPoint, film or text excerpts as needed (see assignment instructions)

Week 15: May 2 - 6

Mo - Fri Oral presentations of papers with handouts or PowerPoint, film or text excerpts as needed (see assignment instructions)

**Final draft of longer written paper due May 12: (see assignment instructions)

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