Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
ENGLISH 415
Seminar in Literature
Spring 2016
Dr. Sheila Liming
sheila.liming@und.edu
701-777-2782
Office: Merrifield 1B
!
Course Description
Office hours:
MWF 10 am 12 pm,
and by appointment
Office hours:
MWF 10 am 12 pm,
and by appointment
To familiarize students with the process of reading and writing closely in the immediate context
of such touchstone literary works.
To professionalize and train students for advanced work within the literary arts curriculum.
To impart processes of close reading, close writing, and attentive research as preparation for
advanced coursework in literary or communicational study.
To encourage multimodal thinking in both the consumption and construction of written texts, and
to hone students skills in both writing and creating textual artifacts.
To establish standards for academic discourse and participation through in-class discussion, peer
evaluation, and collaborative assignments.
To model a process of critical textual investigation, and to permit students the opportunity to
practice applying a variety of critical and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of textual
objects.
To encourage students to consider narrative in the context of mediation, and to survey narrative
and storytelling broadly across a landscape of digital and new media methods.
Required Texts
[to be purchased]
Adorno, Theodor. Minima Moralia. New York: Verso, 2006. Print.
Delillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Penguin, (1984) 2009. Print.
Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl. New York: Penguin (2012) 2014. Print.
Freud, Sigmund. Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria. New York: Simon and Schuster
(1901) 1997. Print.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Print.
Schlink, Bernhard. The Reader. New York: Vintage, 1997. Print.
*** NOTE: Schlinks The Reader is not available via the UND Bookstore and should be
purchased separately ***
Thomas, D.M. The White Hotel. New York: Penguin, 1993. Print.
Ullman, Ellen. By Blood. New York: Picador, 2012. Print.
Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting. New York: Norton (1993) 1996. Print.
[available on Blackboard]
Barthes, Roland. From Work to Text. Image, Music, Text, tr. Heath. New York: Hill and
Wang (1977): 55-65. Print.
Bay, Robert B. The Field of Literature and Film. Film Adaptation, ed. Naremore. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP (2000): 38-53. Print.
Bazin, Andr. Adaptation, or the Cinema as Digest. Film Adaptation, ed. Naremore. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP (2000): 19-28. Print.
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. The Work
of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap (2008): 19-55. Print.
---. The Task of the Translator. Illuminations. New York: Schocken (1968): 69-83. Print.
Hutcheon, Linda. Beginning to Theorize Adaptation. A Theory of Adaptation. New York:
Routledge (2006): 1-32. Print.
Jameson, Frederic. Afterword: Adaptation as a Philosophical Problem. True to the Spirit:
Film Adaptation and the Question of Fidelity, ed. MacCabe. New York: Oxford UP
(2011): 215-233. Print.
Kittler, Friedrich A. Film. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, tr. Winthrop-Young and Wutz.
Stanford, CA: Stanford UP (1999): 115-182. Print.
Patterson, Shelagh. Universalizing a Nation and the Adaptation of Trainspotting. True to
the Spirit: Film Adaptation and the Question of Fidelity, ed. MacCabe. New York:
Oxford UP (2011): 131-141. Print.
Sanders, Julie. What is Adaptation? Adaptation and Appropriation. New York: Routledge
(2005): 17-25. Print.
Stam, Robert. Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation. Film Adaptation, ed. Naremore.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP (2000): 54-77. Print.
Assignments and Grading
Reading Responses: short, written responses that offer claims about the assigned reading and
[15 pts. each]
ask strategic questions about it (250 words total)
Paper I: Adapting for Popular Audiences (Flynn / Welsh)
[80 pts.]
Minima Moralia Film Shorts Assignment
[120 pts.]
Prcis [20 points]
Film [100 points]
Paper II: Final Paper
[100 pts.]
Course Participation
Mid-semester [50 pts.]
Final [50 pts.]
Come to class prepared, with a hard (physical) copy of the required reading.
Since laptop use is prohibited in class, it is essential that you print bring a hard
copy of the required reading to class every day. When .pdf readings are provided
on Blackboard, it is your responsibility to print those readings out and bring them
with you to class. Failure to do so will result in the loss participation points;
additionally, failure to do so may affect any in-class writing assignments, quizzes,
or exercises that require the text in question.
Be courteous toward your peers. When you raise disagreement in class either
with the instructor or with your peers try to do so respectfully. Articulate your
reasons and grounds for disagreement and direct them towards an idea, rather
than a person. Failure to show adequate respect towards your peers or towards
your instructor may result in your being asked to leave the classroom. Such a
request will, in turn, affect my assessment of your class participation, and
possibly your attendance record as well.
Keep in mind that participation will be assessed twice throughout the semester
at the mid-semester point, and once again at the end.
a Works Cited page, providing correct bibliographic information for each source
cited, quoted, or consulted in your paper
correct in-text citations for each source cited, quoted, or consulted in your paper
If you are unsure of MLA guidelines, I suggest you either consult or purchase a current
MLA Style Guide, or consult the following online source:
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University
website ! http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
!
In addition to proper citation,
All papers, including short response assignments, must be typed, double-spaced, with 1
margins.
Carefully edit and proofread all texts to eliminate problems in grammar, spelling, and
punctuation.
Digital copies of all final papers must be cleanly edited and readable. This means that
you must remove all digital comments/suggestions, including highlighted or underlined
text, and including all comment balloons.
Documents that do not meet these and other assignment-specific requirements will not be
graded.
Deadlines
All written assignments must be submitted on the due date, and missing the class when the
assignment is due doesnt mean your assignment isnt late. Turning in an assignment on time is
part of doing the assignment, and late work will be penalized, regardless of how well its
executed.
Lateness penalties are as follows:
Papers and assignments. For every day that is, every day of the week, and not every
class period that a paper or homework assignment is due, your final draft will lose two
points.
Midterm and final papers/projects. For every day that a midterm or final paper/project is
late, you will lose five points.
Daily assignments. All late assignments may receive a maximum of half-credit (50%),
regardless of how late they are.
Communications
You can reach me via email, office phone, or a note in my mailbox in Merrifield Hall. The best
way to reach me, of course, is through email I check it frequently and, while I cannot guarantee
an immediate reply, it is certainly the fastest way to get in touch.
If you have questions about the policies of this class, review the syllabus first, and then make
an appointment to speak with me.
Course Schedule
January 13
February 3
February 8
February 10
February 17
!
Unit II: Mediation, Translation, and Adaptation
The Nazi Holocaust as a Case Study in Adaptation
February 24
DUE: Frank, Diary of a Young Girl [BB];
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
! listen to the whole album: YouTube link
! read the album lyrics wiki: Wiki link
In-class: screen Night and Fog (1955)
March 2
March 9
March 23
March 30
April 6
April 13
April 18
April 20
April 27
May 4
[80 pts.]
In the first few weeks of this course, weve been concentrating on the theory behind the most
common type of modern narrative adaptation: the transformation of print texts into motion
picture films. Weve reviewed two case studies in connection with this unit, Gillian Flynns
novel Gone Girl and its filmic counterpart, and Irvine Welshs Trainspotting and its filmic
counterpart.
For this paper, select one of these pairs of texts, concentrating either on Flynns novel /
Finchers film, or on Welshs novel / Boyles film. Prepare a 6-10 page paper that offers a
comparison between the text and film that you have chosen while drawing on at least one
critical or theoretical text from our course readings so far. You should use these critical or
theoretical texts to help bolster an argumentative interpretation of the text/film comparison you
have chosen to focus on in your paper.
Some questions to guide your thinking for this paper / possible areas of focus:
How does [novel x] appear to construct expectations of audience? How does the
film adaptation of this novel appear to alter, challenge, or broaden those
expectations?
How do the characters in the novel compare to those portrayed in the film
version?
What political messages, themes, or meanings are present in [novel x]? Are these
themes and messages also present in the film version?
How would you characterize the authors narrative style in [novel x]? How does
the directors style compare in the film version? In either case, what does style do
to develop the plot, themes, characters motivations, etc.?
Survey reviews of both the novel and the movie. What do these reviews indicate
about audiences responses to these two texts? Are those responses comparable,
or do they appear to differ?
a map sentence, in which you outline your major talking points for the paper
a discussion of the stakes of your argument (i.e. why does your argument
matter? What kinds of larger arguments, considerations, critical angles, etc. does
it relate to?)
a Works Cited page, containing a minimum of three entries for the works you cite
and quote from in your paper
[120 pts.]
Throughout this unit, weve been surveying narrative accounts of World War II, and of the Nazi
Holocaust in particular. Theodor Adornos Minima Moralia, which he wrote while living in exile
in the United States, contributes to this canon of narrative texts, though in a very different way.
Adornos style in Minima Moralia combines political theory and philosophy with narrative
prose, personal history and, arguably, poetry. And the question that we, as a class, will consider
in the context of this assignment is this: what kind of a narrative, if any, does this text offer us?
To get at the heart of this question, this assignment asks you to do some adapting and
translating of your own.
Instructions:
Select one of the vignettes from Adornos Minima Moralia and, with a partner, prepare a
short film that summarizes Adornos statements and / or presents the essence of his messages
and ideas from this particular vignette. Your finished film short should be no longer than 3
minutes in length and, rather than rehashing Adornos words verbatim, should offer a creative
interpretation of his ideas in a manner that is, in Bazins words, true to the spirit of
Adornos writing.
Process:
Step 1
Find a Partner
Step 2
Select a Vignette
Select a vignette from Minima Moralia. Claim your vignette by logging on
to our class Blackboard site and adding your name to the Minima
Moralia Wiki (left-hand toolbar)
Step 3
a summary of your concept for the film: state the vignette youve
chosen to focus on, the key ideas or arguments expressed in it, and
how you plan to translate / represent these ideas in your film
samples of dialogue you want to capture (lines from the text,
additional dialogue written for the film, conversations you intend
to film, etc.)
a list of scenes, shots, or possible filming locations
a list of any found footage you are considering including
a list of other people (if any) that you plan to include in the film
(aside from yourself and your partner)
a discussion of methods and techniques for example:
- Will you be including live dialogue, or do you plan to
record separate, voice-over narration?
Step 4
- Will you include any on-screen text? If so, what, and how
much?
- Will you incorporate music / non-diagetic sound? If so,
what kind, and from what sources? Keep in mind that
music may be subject to copyright, and detail your plans
to work within the statutes of that copyright, where
necessary.
a statement of the overall argument / message of the film, and a
discussion of how this message itself relates to or stems from
Adornos original text
a working list of credits credits will appear at the end of your
film and should include the names of anyone who contributes to it
and citations and references (for text, music, images, etc.)
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
if you are using any found footage (from YouTube, etc.), youll
also want to download and import that footage at this time
[Editing Pane]
[Imported Files]
[Film / Sequence
Pane]
[Sequence
Editing Pane]
You can edit and cut film footage in the Editing Pane at top-left by
inserting markers
a and then clicking / dragging the footage into
the Sequence Editing Pane, arranging them on different tracks in order
to create different sequences.
Well explore other editing techniques in class. But I highly recommend
getting a head-start on the editing process by consulting this handy tutorial
here: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-to/create-videostory.html
Step 8
[100 pts.]
Over the course of the semester, weve been engaging the topic of narrative adaptation through
case study evaluations. Throughout Unit II, in particular, weve been focusing on narratival
accounts of an actual historical event the Nazi Holocaust / World War II in order to
conceptualize the many ways in which narratives of this kind may be constructed, and the myriad
meanings and interpretations that may result from that construction. For your final paper, select a
narrative account of the Nazi Holocaust / World War II to use as a case study, and then
prepare an 8-10 pp. paper analyzing and interpreting this text in the context of narrative
adaptation.
You may select from the following case study texts:
novels:
graphic / young adult novels:
DeLillo, Don. White Noise.
Frank, Anne. Diary of a Young Girl.
Schlink, Bernard. The Reader.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus.
Thomas, D.M. The White Hotel.
Ullman, Ellen. By Blood.
music:
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over
film:
the Sea.
Daldry, Stephen, dir. The Reader (2008)
Resnais, Alain, dir. Night and Fog (1955)
OR, you may select another narrative account of the Nazi Holocaust to serve as your case study.
The Nazi Holocaust, along with the related events of World War II, constitutes one of the
defining stories of twentieth-century culture, particularly in the West. The result is that there
are literally thousands of narrative accounts dealing with these historical events, and you are
welcome to select from among them so long as you clear your choice with me first!
In addition to your chosen case study, you are also required to incorporate at least one
secondary text from our course reading. These secondary texts include any works of theory or
criticism that deal with the ideas of narrative adaptation, appropriation, modification, etc.
Your final paper should accomplish the following:
it should offer a clear argument about the case study text that you have chosen to
work with. In particular, it should argue how, or in what ways, the text in question
adapts the story of the Nazi Holocaust / World War II.
it should offer a clear connection between your chosen case study text and a
secondary text (criticism / theory) from our course reading; it should develop the
connection between these two texts through thorough investigation, interpretation,
and analysis.
it should also refer to other narrative examples from our course readings. How
does your case study compare to the other stories about these historical events?