Great Adaptations: The Art and Ethics of Re-Writing - CED00230C

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Module summary

This module will enable students to critically analyse and to creatively respond to a range of narrative adaptations — of various genres and forms, by diverse Anglophone writers from the nineteenth century to the present. Students will closely read each text in relation to its cultural and historical contexts and relevant critical debates (in the light, for example, of gender and postcolonial theory). They will explore theories of adaptation, the ethics and logistics of ‘translating’ a text’s generic and formal features — including its plot, characterisation, perspective, style, and intertexts — across media, and the adaptation industry.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2023-24

Module aims

This module will enable students to critically analyse and to creatively respond to a range of narrative adaptations — of various genres and forms, by diverse Anglophone writers from the nineteenth century to the present. Students will closely read each text in relation to its cultural and historical contexts and relevant critical debates (in the light, for example, of gender and postcolonial theory). They will explore theories of adaptation, the ethics and logistics of ‘translating’ a text’s generic and formal features — including its plot, characterisation, perspective, style, and intertexts — across media, and the adaptation industry.

Module learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

• Engage with key theoretical debates relating to adaptation, and with the processes by (and main contexts in which) Anglophone writers and production teams have adapted texts from the nineteenth century to the present.

• Write critically about or produce an excerpt from an adaptation.
• Apply critical thinking, research, and communication skills.
• Explore the relationship between critical and creative writing.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

The tutor will give regular individual verbal and written feedback throughout the module on work submitted. The assessment feedback is as per the university’s guidelines with regard to timings.

Indicative reading

• Bram Stoker Dracula, ed by Roger Luckhurst (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat Dracula, BBC 1, 1-3 January 2020
• Hester Bradley, Imelda Whelehan Screen Adaptation: Impure Cinema (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010)
• Linda Hutcheon A Theory of Adaptation, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2012)
•  Jacqueline Goldfinger, Allison Horsley Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage: A Guide and Workbook for New and Experienced Writers (London: Routledge, 2022)