Hauptseminar British Drama into Film Issues of Textual Origins and Film Adaptations

This course teaches students to think critically and creatively about both dramatic and visual texts and to effectively explore the links and contrasts between them by studying the textual origins and film adaptations of four canonical plays from British drama history, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. We will look closely at the Art of Adaptation and examine carefully how the filmmaker uses the dramatic text to make his or her film. We discuss fidelity, accuracy and truth as important measuring devices for the evaluation of a film from a dramatic source. We'll ask 4 specific questions about the relationship between the text and the film of every adaptation: What does the film take from the text? What does the film omit from the text? What does the film add to the text? What does the film alter significantly from the text? Last but not least, we'll look closely at the aspects of the film medium such as camera work (movement, angles, distance), editing, lighting, music, etc., which the filmmaker uses to transform the story from the written medium into the film medium. All participants are requested to obtain and read the aforementioned plays, which will be discussed in the order listed above. Please make sure to use the editions: • William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Oxford World Classics, 2008), • George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (Reclam Fremdsprachentexte, 1990), • Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan (Oxford World Classics, 2008) and • John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Faber and Faber, 1986). Further texts required for the seminar will be provided online (cf. DuE Publico). Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen WS 2013/14 Master, Master PD Dr. Ikas Karin