ENGLISH 2700-100 BOOKS INTO MOVIES WHITE 120 R 6.10-8.50

Prof. Hugh Ormsby-Lennon Dept of English SAC 466; Phone/ Voice-mail 94655

Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 5.00-6.00 pm and by appt.

Home Phone/ Voice-mail 215-592-8102. (It's best to call me at home.)

E-mail: Hugh.Ormsby-Lennon@Villanova.edu (use this rather than Voicemail

Home fax: 215-238-1187 (Alert me first, please.)

Home Page: url: http//www60.homepage,villanova.edu/ My home page is most easily accessible from "My Classroom," the photo site that we all share for English 2700-100. My home page is also accessible via the Villanova Faculty Directory on WWW. My home page will have a link to this syllabus, continually updated, and to other important information concerning this class.

*********

Theme: "How novels and plays are transformed into films."

Seminar Description: Film directors and their screen writers have turned, continually, to literature for inspiration. How should the movies which result be evaluated against their literary originals? Do the novels and plays constitute their true "inspiration"--or merely their "occasion"? Critics who argue that films, perforce, betray their original inspiration are said to practice "fidelity criticism." In this class, we shall contemplate the strategies of "fidelity criticism" and examine the ways in which much knee-jerk nay-saying may be answered. Some of us may indeed continue to insist that any movie "version"--however great a work of art in its own right--will inevitably fall short of a brilliant literary original. This does not mean, of course, that the movie cannot teach us a great deal about the novel or play upon which it is based. Nor should we forget that most films are not drawn from literature. Perhaps the very greatest are not, but directors remain fascinated by the challenge of making books into movies.

In this class I have intentionally cast a wide net--making the final cut proved a hard job--and our reading/viewing list is designedly heterogeneous. This is a class without an agenda. Students are encouraged to bring their own preconceptions to the class, but preconceptions which (I trust) will become more refined during the course of the semester. We shall watch screenings of commercialized Shakespeare and of postmodern Shakespearean adaptations (Ally McBeal's Midsummer Night's Dream, Prospero's Books), of classic American drama (The Crucible), of a cult sci-fi movie based upon a premier sci-fi novel (Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), of masterpieces of English fiction (Persuasion, Howards End), of an "entertainment" novel and of the greater movie derived from it (The Third Man), of a "hip" contemporary Irish novel and musical (The Commitments), of a compelling modern American play and the "bratpack" Hollywood adaptation (Sexual Perversity in Chicago and About Last Night). We shall start with Crumb, a film that many regard as the best documentary ever made. And where's the book in Crumb? R. Crumb is the leading counter-culture cartoonist of the last century (if one can so describe a raving, if twisted, conservative) who draws pictures during the film and for the film: in short, the book is in the movie. We end with Prospero's Books which is full of magical images of rare books that come to life.

From one perspective, the class is a no-brainer. There are books. There are movies. Join up the dots. But I hope to teach you something more in this class. A class on "Books into Movies" that meets once a week may seem an invitation to the popcorn counter! But we shall be examining the films on the syllabus in a wider context. In The Language of Cinema Kevin Jackson introduces us, in dictionary format, to the many lexical indispensable for talking intelligently about film (technical, social, commercial, critical, historical, &c); this book deserves hours of extended and informal reading (carry it around with you so that you can devour it while brushing your teeth or standing on line for lunch). In Teach Yourself Film Studies Warren Buckland surveys many aesthetic and technical theories of film (formal, realistic, auteur, noir, documentary, genre, reviewers' input). In Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner Paul Sammon chronicles the complex process by which a sci-fi masterpiece by Philip K. Dick was transformed into a cult-movie, initially unsuccessful, by Ridley Scott (now of Gladiator fame). In so doing, Sammon reveals the byzantine dynamics of Hollywood and the aesthetic indeterminacy of the film as a work of art. Which of four versions of Blade Runner should we be watching in class? We'll sample two. On the other hand, purists and fidelity critics will maintain that Dick's grunge-psychedelic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? trumps them all!

And there are other questions. Is the Merchant/Ivory version of Howards End an exercise in mortuary science rather than in movie making? Is Ang Lee's movie version of Sense and Sensibility a piece of high-gloss big-name trash with some Ivory/Merchant input (students are encouraged to watch this travesty on their own nickel) when compared with the brilliant low-budget TV version of Austen's Persuasion which we shall watch together? Is Neil Jordan's musical version of The Commitments, for all its guts and gusto, a betrayal? Is Prospero's Books a weird masterpiece (as I believe) or just another Brit exercise in hyper-intellectual self-indulgence?

Students will be invited to explore these questions and others, particularly in their final paper. Possibilities for personal viewing and for papers based upon them are rich and various. Do you want to explore film versions of Austen? (And don't forget Clueless, the Valley Girl adaptation of Emma.) Or the different movies that have been based upon one of Shakespeare's plays? Or different films made from novels by Forster? Or the genre of sci-fi? Or adaptations of other great works of American fiction (Scorsese's version of Wharton's Age of Innocence, Demi Moore's risible Scarlet Letter?) Or do you want to see how acclaimed works by Ang Lee might relate to his version of Sense and Sensibility? Or might adaptations of the two other novels in "The Tarrytown Trilogy" by Roddy Doyle, filmed after The Commitments, prove truer to the author's intentions? David Mamet has turned increasingly from playwriting to movie-directing, but can such a movie as Ronin ever challenge his achievements in the theater? As I write, movie-versions of novels continue to spill into the cinemas--from Terence Davies's adaptation of Edith Wharton's House of Mirth to Billy Bob Thornton's version of Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses--so there are many options for research and criticism.

These paragraphs and these questions are designed as a provocation to students to strike out in a variety of directions. Some of you may wish to stay close to the syllabus. Finally, it's the quality of your writing and of your analysis that counts (and that will be reflected in your final grade--in conjunction with class discussion, performance on the final etc). But you should be aware that there are many ways of approaching the topics that will be ventilated during the semester. "Follow your bliss," as Joseph Campbell once remarked. This class is designed to open things up rather than to nail them down. And some of you may wish to take wing into the rarefied empyrean of theory, whether semiotic, structuralist, feminist, marxist, freudian, postmodern. . . .

**********

Books on the Syllabus (in the order that we shall read and view them)

Roddy Doyle, The Commitments (in The Tarrytown Trilogy)

E. M. Forster, Howards End (the Bedford Edition contains helpful ancillary materials)

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Ballantine)

Paul Sammon, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner

David Mamet, Sexual Perversity in Chicago (French)

David Mamet, On Directing Film

Arthur Miller, The Crucible

Graham Greene, The Third Man

Jane Austen, Persuasion

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (any text of the play will do)

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (glossy book of the Ally McBeal version)

Shakespeare, The Tempest (any good text of the play will do)

Warren Buckland, Teach Yourself Film Theory

Kevin Jackson, Language of Cinema

Syllabus

Please note that after Spring Break students will also "pre-view," in Falvey Library, The Crucible, Persuasion, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Prospero's Books before our class screening and discussion. Details to be announced on March 15th.

Jan 18 Introduction. Crumb (American, dir. Terry Zwigoff, 1994; presented by David Lynch; 119 minutes; the best documentary that never won the Oscar)

25 Doyle + The Commitments (British-Irish, dir. Alan Parker, 1991; 116 minutes)

Feb 1 Forster + Howards End (British, "Merchant-Ivory," 1992, 145 minutes)

8 Forster + Howards End

15 Philip K. Dick, Androids + Blade Runner (American, dir. Ridley Scott, 1982; 115 minutes, 58 seconds)*

Sammon, Future Noir

22 Androids + Blade Runner ("Director's Cut," 1993; 116 minutes, 16 seconds)**

Mar 1 Greene + The Third Man (British, dir. Carol Reed, 1949; 104 minutes)

First Paper Due; First Journal Due

8 Spring Break

15 Mamet's Sexual Perversity + About Last Night (American, dir. Edward Zwick, 1986, 116 minutes; not a Mamet screenplay; with Rob Lowe, James Belushi, Demi Moore etc)

Mamet, On Directing Film

22 Miller + The Crucible (American, dir. Nicholas Hytner, 1996 from author's screenplay, 123 minutes; with Winona Ryder, Daniel Day-Lewis etc)

29 Austen + Persuasion (British television production--with great, but gloriously unfamiliar, actors--released for cinema screening, dir. Roger Michell, 1995, 103 minutes)

April 5 Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream + A Midsummer Night's Dream (American, dir. Michael Hoffman, 1999, 115 minutes; with Ally McBeal, Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer etc)

12 Easter Vacation

19 Shakespeare's Tempest + Prospero's Books (British/European, dir. Peter Greenaway, 1991, 123 minutes)

26 Shakespeare's Tempest + Prospero's Books

*The first version of Blade Runner that we shall be watching is the NR "International Cut" rather than the R rated US release; it adds 15 seconds of violence to the version shown in American cinemas. **The "Director's Cut" contains Scott's original ending (less happy), deletes Harrison Ford's "voice-over," and features Deckard's dream of the unicorn. Unfortunately, the Macrovision anticopying protection device renders the letterbox image slightly murkier; the aforementioned 15 seconds of "International" violence have been deleted. (Question: is the "real" version of Shakespeare's King Lear to be found in the Quarto text, in the Folio text , in a composite of both texts--or are there actually two versions of the play?)

Movie Viewing

(i) Many of the movies on the syllabus are owned by and can be viewed in Falvey Library. Since last Fall, the Acquisitions Librarian has been engaged in completing Falvey's holdings of all films on the syllabus. Don't book (or borrow) films for the evenings on which I am screening them!

(ii) In class, I shall comment on the films as they unfold upon the screen. I realize that this contravenes the current etiquette or conventions of most movie houses, and I apologize in advance for what may strike some as busy-body interventions. On the other hand, we are viewing films in a classroom situation so I feel compelled to offer my professorial two cents (which is, after all, what your dads and mums are paying for). You should realize, moreover, that until the late 19^th century audiences for plays in theaters felt no qualms about commenting on the script or the actors. In short, there was far more audience participation. Those who reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London sought to resuscitate this old ambience. Unfortunately, those who buy the scarce seats for performances at the Globe have returned to the repressive practices of "SSSHHH!" when they hear commentary from the Pit where the poorer groundlings stand. Please feel free to voice your own opinions during our class screenings. "Oh! Yuk! Bleeah!" might well be, for example, an apt response to voice during our screening of Crumb. Or "Gimme a break!" during Prospero's Books.

(iii) I realise that our class ends, properly speaking, at 8.50. I should like, however, to "run over" for those who would enjoy extending communal opportunities for analysis and discussion. I fully appreciate that some students may not be able to stay because they have other appointments to keep. Hence my suggested opportunity for an extended investigation of "Books into Movies" remains altogether voluntary, but I do look forward to any additional possibilities for intellectual exploration that it may offer.

*********

Writing assignments

All papers must be typed, except for those completed in the classroom. The arrival of late essays will be noted and the student's final grade will be penalized accordingly. Students must retain a printed copy of their papers; the assumption that a copy of an essay will continue to reside on a diskette or a hard drive does not remain an acceptable substitute. In the event that a paper goes unaccountably astray, it is the student's responsibility to have a replacement. Ideally papers should be handed to me in the classroom; but, in certain circumstances, they can be handed to a secretary in the English Department (please make sure that she has noted the time and date the essay was submitted. Papers can also be slipped under my office door (but this is the least desirable mode of submission).

Because of viruses NO essays will be accepted on e-mail. With the instructor's prior approval, papers may be faxed on certain occasions.

Formal essays should have a title and an epigraph. For further advice about my criteria for a successful essay, please see the link to "Tips on Writing" on my home page. Those tips will be further updated with links to comparable advice provided by fellow instructors in the Core Humanities Program and in the English Department.

 Writing Intensive Course

This class is designated "Writing Intensive" by the English Department and by the University; it thus requires some 4000 words from each student in the course of the semester. This adds up to some twenty pages @ roughly 200 words per page; some students write more words per page, others less, but I keep a tally of each student's productivity in my file on her.

Journals

Journals will enable undergraduates to complete some of their writing in more informal circumstances; these are designed to promote confidence and fluency. Handwritten journals will be accepted (but my experience is that such journals tend towards the ill-conceived and the slapdash). Most students now compose even informal documents upon the computer screen. While I certainly do not expect "thesis-driven papers" under the rubric of "journals," I do expect that journals should exhibit a degree of premeditation and a modicum of graceful expression. Students will maintain a dated journal of at least fifteen pages. I shall be delighted to read more, but I shan't read less (without serious grumbling).

What I expect to find in your journals are responses to the books we have read and the movies we have watched together. I also expect to see that you have been watching movies on TV, renting videos, and going to the cinema. Villanova's "Cultural Film & Lecture Series" represents an easily accessible venue for movie-going. Movies are screened on Saturdays at 7.00 p.m., Sundays at 3.30 and 7.00 p.m., and Mondays at 7.00 p.m. The Monday showing is followed by a lecture that should offer an ideal complement to "Books into Movies."

This semester's series, "The Play's the Thing," features several adaptations of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, and Hamlet 2000. The latter three are noteworthy, and the last represents a brilliant contemporary adaptation. You need to know the play well and should probably watch Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet beforehand. In fact, all of the films offer invaluable opportunities for you to expand the horizons of "Books into Movies." I thus expect to find commentary on some, if not all, the films in your journals. I should also like to see comments on the lectures, not all of which I shall be able to attend. "The Play's the Thing" represents an important complement to "Books into Movies" and I expect dedicated students to make full use of its offerings. I shall distribute copies of the schedule in class.

The first installment of the Journal will be due with the first paper, the second installment with the final paper. Fifteen pages is a minimum; you are urged to write more if (and when) the spirit moves you. And you are also encouraged to submit journals earlier than the deadlines indicated on the syllabus if you are eager to obtain some feedback from me (which I shall be delighted to provide). Journals can be a good place in which to thresh out the details of paper topics.

Paper Topics and Due Dates

The first paper (5-7 pp.) is due on March 1^st before Spring Break. Write on the relationship of a book that we have read to a film that we have viewed in ways that you find challenging. You may want to compare changes in plot, character, or mood. Did you prefer the film to the book and if so, why? What did the book lose after it was transformed into a movie? What might it have gained?

In the second paper (7-10 pp), you will be invited to go beyond a direct comparison of a book and a film into a more general consideration of what occurs when books are made into movies. You may still wish to focus on individual works--in this instance more than two--but you should ponder more general issues. And you may wish to develop some of the suggestions that I have offered in the "Seminar Description" above. The due date for the final paper will be announced after Spring Break, but I shall not expect it before the final examination. Early submissions and returns are cheerfully accommodated!

I shall hold conferences with you all after Spring Break in order to return your first papers and to discuss topics for your final paper. Before the conference, you should start thinking about that topic. As with your journals, your papers may be longer than the page-length I have suggested. I am, however, looking for quality rather than quantity.

Classroom discussion

Lively discussion is required and your contributions will be reflected in your final grade. "Speaking across the curriculum" has again been recognized as an important component of education in American universities.

Grades

Final grades will be based primarily (but by no means exclusively) upon the performance of undergraduates in their essays. Students are encouraged to revise their first paper after we have discussed it in conference. (The new grade will not replace the old one, but improvements will be registered in a new grade which should improve the undergraduate's overall grade. Please note that a revision will NOT be accepted as a revision UNLESS it is accompanied by a copy of the original paper with my suggestions and corrections upon it.) Undergraduates are encouraged to visit the Writing Center; I shall keep a copy of the peer counselor's report in each student's individual file.

Student journals will not be formally graded, but they represent an important part of the semester's work. I shall keep an informal record of each student's performance. E-mail has become an important part of all our lives; I shall keep a printed record of each undergraduate's communications with me. E-mails sent during the course should not be treated as "shopping lists" or as other scribbles designed "for your eyes only." Grammar, spelling, and general literacy will thus be scrutinized.

The final examination is open-book: bring notes, syllabi, e-mails, and whatever else you wish to the examination room; the permissibility of laptops is open to debate. This final is important insofar as I am convinced that a student's performance on the identification and commentary question reflects her familiarity with crucial passages of the works that we have discussed during the semester. I shall choose passages that require you to comment upon the movie adaptation. Please note that I often comment in the class-room that "This is an important passage; students should realize that it comprises just the kind of passage that will appear in the identification and commentary question." (Hint: take notes.) There will also be an essay question in the final examination that will demand knowledge of the books we have read and the movies we have watched together.

A variety of other "imponderables" also enters into the assignment of a final grade. Improvement (particularly in writing) can prove a major consideration. Remember to bring your books to class; remember to take your books out of your book-bag; remember to open your books to the pages we are discussing. Students who neglect to bring their books invite summary extrusion from the classroom. Don't fall asleep in the classroom; don't stare blankly out the window; or don't endeavor, surreptitiously, to catch up with work for other classes. Don't chatter with, or pass clandestine notes to, your colleagues. Read the newspaper at home, please. A student's overall attitude is important, and it will be noted. Please remember, too, that grades in every class must display some "curving."

Grading is an art not a science. I refrain from assigning "cut and dried" percentages for written work, for classroom discussion, for the final examination, and for other components of the semester's grade. I do, however, expect contributions to class discussion and a competent performance on the final examination. (A rule of thumb of percentages might be: 40% writing; 20% final exam; 20% class discussion; 20% journal.) Rest assured that I try to be scrupulously fair and, all things being equal, invoke mercy as well as justice.

Conferences

At least one conference will be scheduled with each student. You are expected not only to be on time but to have something to say about your work. "Blowing off" a conference will adversely affect a student's cumulative grade. If circumstances prevent you from keeping an appointment on the day of our conference, call the English Department secretary and leave a message; I do not have e-mail facilities in my office so an e-mail will not reach me there. Conference appointments will be faithfully observed (and cumulative grades will suffer from any cavalier disregard by students). Come to conferences with something to say; don't stare at me like a fish. My time is valuable; yours should be too. Would you present yourself for an important job interview in a casual or unprepared fashion?

Class communication

Students are expected to read their e-mails (since the e-classroom becomes more of a reality each year). If you arrive in class and find yourself in a minority of one (or two or even three) as regards a missive from me, there is clearly something wrong with your communication system! Often I make significant remarks in e-mails about the works we have discussed. The serious student will keep a record of these. Students (particularly those who have been absent from class, for whatever reason) are required to remain familiar with the syllabus and with fresh postings about the class.

Academic honesty

Given the enticements of the Web (schoolsucks.com &c), plagiarism seems to have gone high tech. You should realize, however, that your instructors' search engines are awesomely powerful . . . At a more old-fashioned level, professors pass students papers around and I may well have already read "that paper you borrowed from a friend who submitted it to another class."

You are required to familiarize yourself with the latest statements of the university's policies on academic honesty. You will also read "Documenting Sources, MLA Style," Brief Holt Handbook, pp. 307-343 and "Avoiding Plagiarism, Brief Holt Handbook, pp. 299-303. Read this material in the Handbook with particular attention to problems of using work not your own. Paper topics will be designed to discourage any temptation to plagiarism.

You should be aware that I have reported students for plagiarism in the past and that I shall not hesitate to do so again. The university protocols for dealing with my reports protect the interests of both professor and student, but they are, necessarily, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Far better that you should avoid, scrupulously, any suspicion of plagiarism on your part. Students should also be aware that powerful search-engines have been devised for detecting any plagiarism from materials on the www; the resources of the web may seem to make it easier to pull off plagiarism, but they make academic dishonesty far more detectable.

Etiquette

Gentlemen may wear hats. Undergraduates are requested to eschew the use of bubble-gum in the classroom and during conferences. (Chewing gum, by contrast, is permissible.) Unexplained absences, as well as late arrivals to class, will be recorded by the instructor. If you arrive late for class or turn in a late paper, please confirm that I have made the appropriate changes in my record book. Please familiarize yourself with university policy on absences that lack a legitimate excuse.

Students can, alas, encounter sudden crises in their lives--I am always sympathetic--but please do not wait until the end of the semester to explain why you haven't attended class or submitted papers. I am not nosey about your personal dramas, but a call from the University's Counseling Center or a doctor's note will help substantiate explanations. The university requires that students be prepared to document their reasons for missing class. Please note university deadlines for "WXing a class." If your name still appears on my final grade sheet and you have, for whatever reason, disappeared from the class without leaving a paper trail, I gather from the Registrar's Office that your capacity to receive a passing grade will be very gravely compromised.

Academic Accommodations for Qualified Students with Disabilities

"It is the policy of Villanova University to make reasonable academic accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are a person with a disability and wish to request accommodations to complete your course requirements, please make an appointment with the course professor as soon as possible to discuss the request. If you would like information on documentation requirements, contact the Office of Learning Support Services at 610-519-5636, or visit the office in Geraghty Hall."