LIT 258 Literary Adaptations
Students gain familiarity with some of the canonical texts of literary tradition as well as the ways in which these have been adapted, rewritten, appropriated, and deconstructed at different times, and for various purposes and audiences. Students explore an interdisciplinary range of texts, from film, graphic novel, drama, and fiction, as they investigate how, in the words of Robert Stam, adaptations "help their sources . . . ‘survive’ . . . changing environments and changing tastes." As students consider primary texts alongside some adaptation theory, they will ask such questions as: what differences do genre and form make? What are the opportunities and challenges inherent to the process of adaptation? How do multiple versions of the same story trouble our ideas about originality? The course may also focus on feminist and postcolonial adaptations, or those that otherwise challenge or re-chart their original texts, thus providing them with sometimes surprising afterlives. (Recommended prerequisite: LC 100W)