LT206-5-FY-CO:
Narrative and Film
2016/17
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
30
02 August 2002
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA PQ32 Film Studies and Literature (Including Year Abroad),
BA QW26 Film Studies and Literature,
BA QW27 Film Studies and Literature (Including Placement Year)
How do films tell their stories? How do genre films utilize particular narrative conventions for storytelling? And how do filmmakers adapt original literary and/or filmic sources to create new stories for the cinema? In the first few weeks of the Autumn Term we explore how meanings are produced in different types of narrative film. We consider key films from the canon of classic Realist Hollywood, modernist, and postmodernist cinema and examine the ways in which different filmic narrative traditions construct their spectators to take up certain subject positions. In the last five weeks of the Autumn Term we turn our attention to the various genre classification systems that group films according to type. We explore how the narrative conventions of Melodrama, Gothic, Film Noir, Science Fiction, and the Road Movie provide "frames of recognition" that guide the production, marketing, and reception of particular films.
The Spring Term is devoted to the study of screen adaptation, the cinematic remake, and transmedia storytelling. We examine the ways in which filmmakers have recycled, updated, and given new life to canonical and popular literatures, to graphic novels and comic books, and to movie originals. In the first five weeks of the Spring Term we look at different types of adaptation, such as free adaptations, drama adaptations, and the literary film. We discuss the signifying mechanism that different media have at their disposal and analyse the changes that occur in the transposition of narratives from one medium into another. In the second half of Spring Term we differentiate between adaptations, which retell the "same" story again (and again), and transmedia storytelling, which arguably invents prequels and sequels out of a desire of never wanting a particular story to end.
Module Supervisor's Research into Subject Area
Professor Littau has published widely in the fields of print and visual cultures. Her main research interests are in film and literature, cross-media adaptations, and transmedia storytelling. Her most recent book is Cinematicity in Media History (2013, with her colleague Professor Jeffrey Geiger). Her next book is a history of the relations between film and literature.
No information available.
No information available.
No additional information available.
Two-three hours of viewing/listening time each week, in addition to the one and a half hour seminar
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Class Participation Mark |
|
10% |
| Coursework |
Essay 1 (2,000 words) |
|
45% |
| Coursework |
Essay 2 (2,500 words) |
|
45% |
| Exam |
Main exam: 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
Additional coursework information
Essay 1 will be 2000 words; Essay 2 will 2500 words
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Professor Karin Littau
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk.
Telephone 01206 872626
Yes
No
No
Dr Keith Brandon Williams
The University of Dundee
Senior Lecturer
Available via Moodle
Of 123 hours, 62 (50.4%) hours available to students:
60 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
1 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.