Literature tends to be studied as a thing apart from other media. But the truth is that literature has been in constant dialogue with film, painting and music. In modernist times Malcolm Lowry wrote fiction with deeply cinematic texture, Jean Renoir made films adapting the short fiction of De Maupassant in homage to the painting of impressionism; the greatest of James Joyce’s stories carry a vocal tonality (and he was a fine tenor). To study modern and contemporary fiction is to situate it in relation to these other arts. This course will study literature in exactly that way, ranging across literature, painting, film and music in order to explore these mechanisms of influence and transposition. 

The question for the class is: What is at stake when an art is transposed into a new medium? The class will be about adaptation: what happens when a novel becomes transposed into film, how does the change in medium put new demands on the material while also inviting new possibilities. How do we measure success or failure? Suppose the adaptation has little to do with its source but is a good film in and of itself? We will encounter fascinating and diverse, kinds of adaptation, from short stories to graphic novels, neurological books, memoirs and even adaptations of paintings to films. 

Course Requirements:

One three page paper on an assigned topic at the midterm and a final paper of eight pages or more due at the end of the course on a topic chosen by the student.

Class Format:

 In Person with a few zoom sessions.