Fiction and Film

After completing this course you will have:

• acquired a good general understanding of the relationship between narrative fiction and film;
• developed skills in analyzing the structure and narratice techniques of novels;
• developed skills in analyzing the structure and narratice techniques of film adaptations;
• learned to understand how and why filmic versions differ from their literary sources;
• learned to understand why and how films must be evaluated in accordance with the laws and conventions of its own medium even if they happen to be || chr(38) ||lsquo;based on || chr(38) ||rsquo; literary texts.

The course assumes a good proficiency in written and oral English

The students must have taken at least 10 ECTS in English literature/culture.

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

Seminar, two hours per week for 14 weeks, 28 hours in all.

Attendance is an obligatory class requirement (80%).Additional absences must be justified (please contact the exam coordinator).

Students must turn in an essay of 5 standard pages by a stated deadline during the semester.

All movies will be shown during the semester, but not during regular seminar teaching. This is not obligatory, but strongly recommended. See schedule for details.

The final grade is set on the basis of a written term paper of 6-8 standard pages (2,300 characters each, not counting Works Cited; 60% of the grade), and a short written exam (2 hours; 40% of the grade). Requirements and details to be distributed during the course.

It is required to pass both parts of the exam individually, and both parts must be taken in the same semester.

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam.

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

The results will be found on the StudentWeb within three weeks after the exam.

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential if we are to provide the best possible education. As a student at the University of Oslo you will be asked to participate in various types of evaluation of our courses. Every time a course is given, we ask students to participate in mid-term evaluations, and periodically we ask them to participate in periodic evaluation of the course.

Reports from periodic evaluations (in Norwegian)

Overlapping courses

1. Shakespeare, King Lear; Film: Grigori Kozintsev, King Lear (1971); Akira Kurosawa, Ran (1985)
2. Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811); Film: Ang Lee, Sense and Sensibility (1996); BBC-John Alexander, Sense and Sensibility (2008)
3. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847); Film: Franco Zeffirelli, Jane Eyre (1996); Cary Fukunaga, Jane Eyre (2011)
4. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861); Film: Great Expectations, David Lean, 1946; Mike Newell, Great Expectations (2012)
5. Peter George, Red Alert (1958); Film: Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove (1964)
6. John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969); Film: Karel Reisz, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)

Editions: Shakespeare: New Cambridge edition; Austen, Brontë, Dickens: Norton Critical Edition; Peter George: Black Mask publishing (2008); John Fowles: Vintage Classics (2004).

Narrativ teori og adaptasjonsteori:

• Jakob Lothe: Narrative in Fiction and Film: An Introduction, 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Del I og kapittel 7 og 8 i del II.
• Grigorij Kozintsev, King Lear: The Space of Tragedy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)
• Rick Altman, Chapter 2: "What is generally understood by the notion of Film genre" in Film/Genre (London: BFI, 1999)
  

Artikler samlet i kompendium 'ENG2326 Fiction and Film' (fås kjøpt på Kopiutsalget, Akademika):

• Boris Eikhenbaum, 'Literature and Cinema' [1926], in Russian Formalism, ed. Stephen Bann and John Bowlt (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973), 122-27.
• Dudley Andrew, 'Adaptation', in Film Theory and Criticism, fifth edn.,

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

A student may sit this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do so in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit the exam.

Once the course requirements have been fulfilled, they remain valid for the current and the next two semesters that the course is taught.