AustLit logo

AustLit

Adaptation and Transgression (ENGL20031)
Semester 1 / 2014

Texts

y separately published work icon Jack Maggs Peter Carey , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1997 Z205857 1997 single work novel (taught in 8 units) The year is 1837 and a stranger is prowling London. He is Jack Maggs, an illegal returnee from the prison island of Australia. He has the demeanor of a savage and the skills of a hardened criminal, and he is risking his life on seeking vengeance and reconciliation.
Influenced by Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.

Description

This subject explores how stories are passed through time, place, genre and meaning through processes of adaptation. Adaptation is concerned with nostalgia, memory and the interpretation of history. In the present day, it has become a source of artistic and cultural transgression while also feeding global media’s need for a constant flow of product distributed across multiple platforms. We will study a variety of adaptation genres drawn from and adapted for literary and popular fiction, theatre, screen and graphic novels. Students will study texts from the literary canon alongside historical and contemporary adaptations. We will examine techniques of adaptation and ask how these texts generate new meanings and reach new audiences.

Assessment

An essay of 1500 words 40% (due mid-semester) and an essay of 2500 words 60% (due in the examination period). This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 75% attendance and regular participation in tutorials.

X