ENGLISH 201 - Jane Austen in Film

Institution:

Hobart William Smith Colleges

Subject:

Description:

This course asks a number of questions: What is the goal of film adaptation What is the nature of the relationship between the adaptation and the source text What is lost and what is gained when a written narrative is presented as a visual and spoken one Because Jane Austen's novels are essentially her own, written creations and films based on them are collaborative and characterized by sound, motion, and visual detail, the two media approach narrative in fundamentally different ways. We will consider to what extent a film version of a Jane Austen novel is an entirely new work that is artistically independent of the original. We will also examine the consequences of viewing such films as translations of Austen's novels both for the filmmakers who approach their projects this way and for critics who read the films from this perspective. While we will certainly take into account the techniques employed by directors and screenwriters to create a coherent and effective narrative that captures the original story-according to their notions of what this means-as they strive to keep the finished film within a reasonable running time, it is important to note that this is not a film course. The focus here is on the interplay between two methods of storytelling that results when novels written by an author who deliberately avoids description are made into film

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

WWW.HWS.EDU

Phone Number:

(315) 781-3000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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