106-032 Novel and Film

Formerly available as 106-240/340. Students who have completed 106-240 or 106-340 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 25 points of first-year English, see Prerequisites.

This subject will teach students how to read films and novels in some detail - and in relation to one another. By focusing on particular texts, it will also help students answer such questions as Why do film adaptations consistently represent society more blandly than their original texts? Is there a literary equivalent to films' visual and narrative pleasures? Students who complete this subject successfully will have an understanding of the formal and technical differences between the novel and the film, some of the techniques of reading the apparatus of mainstream films, and the way films and novels relate to society.

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words.

A subject reader will be available. Unless specified, any edition of the following texts is acceptable:

• J Cain, Double Indemnity.
• J Conrad, Heart of Darkness. Norton Critical Edition.
• P K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
• D DuMaurier, Rebecca.
• Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club.
• Films: Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress.
• Alice Walker, The Color Purple.
• H G Wells, The Time Machine.
• Recommended Reading: D Bordwell and K Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction.