Prof. Dr. Madeleine Danova
Lectures: 30
ECTS: 3
The aim of the course is to give better understanding of the way into which some of the classical texts of American literature have found their way into the most popular of the arts of the twentieth century, the cinema. Comparing the old and the new film versions of some of these literary works and analyzing the recent revival of the film industry’s interest towards them, the students will gain better insight in the mechanisms and the discourses governing the contemporary popular culture in the USA. The course will pay due attention to the variety of critical literature that has spawned in the wake of the latest Hollywood productions of The Scarlet Letter, The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, Washington Square, as well as of the adaptations of the postmodern bestsellers Beloved, Cold Mountain, Smoke Signals.
Assessment:
– Class participation: 25%
– Assignments: 25%
– Term project: 50 %