ENGL 4109-01: Film as Literature

Images of Women in 19^th—Century British Texts and 20th Century Film

Dr. Margaret Mitchell

Session IV
MTWR 6:00PM-8:55PM, Humanities 209

Description:  The nineteenth-century novel has provided rich and complex material for twentieth-century filmmakers.  This course will consider how representations of women in 19^th-century British fiction have been appropriated and revised through the medium of film.  Taking as our central texts three important British novels and a number of film adaptations of those and other texts, we will examine the strategies and politics of adaptation, exploring what happens when 19th-century representations of gender are filtered through a twentieth-century lens.

Texts:  Novels: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre; Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Short critical readings will be made available in class.

Films:

Sense and Sensibility (1995) dir. Ang Lee

Emma (1996) dir. McGrath

Tess (1980) dir. Polanski

Jane Eyre (1943) dir. Stevenson

Jane Eyre (1996) dir. Zeffirelli

The Claim (2000) dir. Winterbottom

Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) dir. Duigan

 

Note: Multiple copies of these films are available in the English department; and you may check out DVD players for use on the second floor of the TLC. (The earlier version of Jane Eyre is only available on VHS, but you can check a copy out of the English department and view it in the library or on any other available VHS players on campus. You will also find most of them at Blockbuster or other video stores, if it's more convenient for you to rent them in order to watch them, say, on weekends. Some of them are also available in the library. It will be your responsibility to make arrangements to view these films OUTSIDE of class. If you can manage to get a head start on the viewing or the reading, it will certainly be an advantage.

 

Requirements:  Active, thoughtful participation, quizzes, in-class writing excercises, film journal, research paper, final exam.

 

Schedule:

Week One: Marriage and Propriety

M 7/4 Holiday

T 7/5 Introduction. Novel: Pride and Prejudice, Austen. View scenes from Sense and Sensibility.

W 7/6 Novel: Pride and Prejudice (Vol. 1: 5-128). Film: Sense and Sensibility.

Th 7/7 Novel: Pride and Prejudice  (Vol. 2: 131--232. Film: Emma.

 

Week Two: Romance and Rebellion

M 7/11 Novel: Novel: Pride and Prejudice (Vol. 3: finish). Film: both Austen films.

T 7/12 Novel: Jane Eyre (1-159[chap. 14]). Film: Jane Eyre (1943)

W 7/13 Novel: Jane Eyre (160-307 [chap. 24]). Film: Jane Eyre (1943)

Th 7/14 Novel: Jane Eyre. Film: Jane Eyre (1996)

 

Week Three: Transgression and Sexuality

M 7/18 Paper proposals due (details to follow). Film: Both Jane Eyre films.

T 7/19 Novel: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy (7-152 [chap. 14]. Film: Tess.

W 7/20 Novel: Tess of the D'Urbervilles (153-265 [chap. 39]). Film: Tess.

Th 7/21 Novel: Tess of the D'Urbervilles 9finish). Film: The Claim.

 

Week Four

M 7/25 Film:Wide Sargasso Sea.

T 7/26 Synthesis, wrap-up, conclusion.

W 7/27 Reading Day

Th 7/28 Final Exam (Take-home, due in my office by 8:30 P.M.) Research papers due.

 

The schedule is subject to adjustment; you are responsible for any changes I announce in class.

 

Evaluation:

Quizzes: 20%

In-class writing/exercises/participation: 20%

Film journal: 20%

Research paper (8-10 pages): 30%

Take-home final: 10%

 

Policies and expectations:

Since we are attempting to accomplish in 13 classes what would ordinarily take an entire semester, it is imperative that you keep up with the assigned reading, viewing, and writing; I expect you to come to class prepared and ready to work. You will be quizzed each day on the film and/or novel for which you're responsible that class. The quizzes will be designed to demonstrate that you've done your work--if you have, you'll do very well. Quizzes cannot be made up, but I will drop your two lowest quiz grades.

Attendance is also essential. You may miss only one class without penalty. If you must miss class, make sure you find out what you have missed and stay on top of your work. If you miss three classes, you will not pass the course unless your situation is truly extraordinary. If you anticipate trouble with attendance, please talk to me as soon as possible. If you expect to miss a class, please try to email me in advance.

Make sure you bring all relevant texts and your film journal to every class; in-class work will require you to have them.

Please do not disrupt the class by arriving late or leaving early unless you have a very compelling reason. Three late arrivals/early departures will count as an absence.

This is a late class, and it is long; you may be tired. If you fall asleep, you will receive one warning; the second time you will be asked to leave and counted as absent. Drink coffee, stretch, have a snack--but please don't doze off.

Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off and removed from your desk during class. Text messaging will not be tolerated. We'll have a short break each day; if you need to make a phone call, do it then.

Late work will be penalized.

Presenting the language or ideas of someone else as your own constitutes plagiarism--whether your source is a friend, a relative, or a critic; whether the uncredited material is a phrase, a paragraph, or an entire paper; whether it is a formal or an informal assignment. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the class. If you are ever concerned about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me. You may also see the English Department website for more details.

I expect you to preserve an atmosphere of courtesy, respect, and intellectual maturity in the classroom; to take your own work and that of the other students seriously.

 

Course Objectives:

1)       Students will learn to view and analyze films as texts with the same confidence that we apply to written literary texts.

2)      Students will gain enhanced knowledge of the ways in which film employs the aesthetic and cultural techniques of other literary forms.

3)     Students will understand that social, political, economic, and historical influences affect the production and consumption of film texts.

4)     Students will understand the intersection of film and the novel through the process of adaptation and become familiar with the theoretical, aesthetic, and cultural issues that intersection creates.

5)     Students will examine the concepts of the American dream and the American hero, as represented in selected texts.

6)      Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well-supported analysis of related material.

7)      Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.

8)      Students will learn to use discipline-specific computer technologies related to the study of language such as listservs, word processing, and Internet research.

9)      Students will experience pleasure in the literary acts of consuming texts and participating in a literary community.