Adaptation 101

elective courses

The class is intended for students interested in adaptation studies and contemporary popular culture. The analysis of adaptations allows for the multidisciplinary approach, combining elements of literature, culture, and media studies.

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the theory of adaptation and offer them tools for adaptation analysis, combining elements of literature, culture, and media studies.

The topics covered include the question of fidelity, various expansions of source texts – remakes, prequels, sequels, characters and storyworlds – transfictionality and transmediality, remixes and mashups. The second part of the course covers particular media and types of adaptations, e.g. comic book movies, audio adaptations (radio and podcasts), or video games. Depending on a given group’s interests, the list of topics may be altered.

The final part of the course is based on students’ analysis of selected adaptations in the form of presentations followed by a Q&A session, which will also serve as the basis for the assessment.

Cutchins, Dennis, Katja Krebs, Eckart Voigts (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Adaptation. Routledge 2018.

Haugtvedt, Erica. Transfictional Character and Transmedia Storyworlds in the British Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation, 2nd ed. Routledge 2013.

Leitch, Thomas (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies. OUP 2017.

Meyer, Christina and Monika Pietrzak-Franger (eds.). Transmedia Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century. Routledge 2022.

Maccabe, Colin. Kathleen Murray, Rick Warner (eds.). True to the Spirit: Film Adaptation and the Question of Fidelity. OUP 2012.

Szwydky, Lissette Lopez and Glenn Jellenik (eds.). Adaptation Before Cinema: Literary and Visual Convergence from Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan 2023.

Knowledge

Students will be able to:

- understand key terminology, well established methods and theories of adaptation studies (K_W02)

- describe methodology and recent developments in adaptation studies (K_W03)

- list the characteristics of English grammar, syntax, phonology, phonetics, morphology and pragmatics on an advanced level (K_W05)

- explain principles of designing adaptation studies, with special focus on selecting appropriate methods and tools in formulating research questions (K_W07)

Abilities

Students will be able to:

- employ the terminology and methodological tools from culture studies (K_U01)

- employ the methodology of culture studies within English studies, respecting the ethical norms and copyright law (K_U02)

- implement knowledge to describe a problem and identify means to solve it, thereby completing a project in adaptation studies (K_U04)

- design one’s own development (K_U11)

Social competences

Students will be ready to:

- undertake life-long learning and personal development, applying skills and competences to select subjects and projects within the course (K_K02)

- value responsibility for one’s own work and respect the work of others, adhering to the professional and ethical norms in various projects and other activities undertaken during the course (K_K03)

Education at language level B2+.

- attendance

- participation in discussions

- presentation

3 absences are allowed.