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Adaptation and Transgression (ENGL20031)

Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

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Semester 1
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This subject explores how stories are passed through time, place, genre and meaning through processes of adaptation. Adaptation is concerned with nostalgia, memory and the interpretation of history. In the present day, it has become a source of artistic and cultural transgression while also feeding global media’s need for a constant flow of product distributed across multiple platforms. We will study a variety of adaptation genres drawn from and adapted for literary and popular fiction, theatre, screen and graphic novels. Students will study texts from the literary canon alongside historical and contemporary adaptations. We will examine techniques of adaptation and ask how these texts generate new meanings and reach new audiences.

Intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:



  • demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of adaptation studies;
  • apply critical and analytical skills and methods to texts from a variety of different media;
  • demonstrate a general understanding of the concepts and principles of literary and performance theory as well as those from the related fields of film and media studies;
  • apply an independent approach to knowledge that uses rigorous methods of inquiry and appropriate methodologies that are applied with intellectual honesty and a respect for ethical and political values;
  • communicate effectively in written and oral formats; and
  • act as informed and critically discriminating participants within the community of scholars.

Generic skills

At the completion of this subject, students should gain the following generic skills:

  • acquired a transportable set of interpretative skills;
  • developed their capacity for independent research;
  • developed their capacity for critical thinking and analysis; and
  • developed their ability to communicate in writing.

Last updated: 19 September 2024