Readings in Fiction: Adaptation

3 Credits.

In this course we will consider the project of contemporary adaptation. Why are writers drawn to retellings? What makes something true enough to its source text(s) to be considered an adaptation but original enough to be more than a copy? When is adaptation an homage and when is it critique? How does a writer interested in contemporary questions of representation and identity approach a text with problematic or dated framing? How does an adapted text work with or against readers’ expectations for plot and structure? Works discussed may include selections by Percival Everett, Jennine Capo Crucet, Isabella Hammad, Mat Johnson, Carmen Maria Machado, Helen Oyeyemi, and Julian Barnes, in conversation with complete or excerpted source texts by Shakespeare, Melville, Flaubert, Poe, and Mark Twain. Alongside the reading and seminar discussion, students will work on a proposed adaptation of their own and workshop both the concept and an excerpt of their projects.