72811 - Literature and Media (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at investigating some aspects characterizing the relationship between literature, cinema, television and new media, focusing on exemplary case studies. At the end of the course students: - understand how writing practices change in an intermedial context such as the contemporary one; - have the tools to analyze texts produced in the new literary scenario resulting from the interaction with digital technologies.

Course contents

Novels, publishing, transmediality.

The course will focus on some aspects characterising the relationship between literature, cinema, television and new media in the construction of narratives that address transnational audiences and create imaginaries characteristic of the global age. In particular, a number of contemporary representations will be analysed as examples of the transition from transpositions that could be understood in the light of the theory of adaptations to the construction of narratives that arise from an imaginary produced by different media and are translated into transmedia productions through the integration of entertainment experiences on different multimedia platforms.

Two case studies in particular will be analysed during the course. In different ways, these case studies allow us to reflect on how different media, and different media relations, give rise to a shared imaginary, which also takes shape from global bestsellers, born in the changed context of publishing in the Age of Amazon.

Finally, the course will ask how consumers, particularly fans, can appropriate this narrative content to expand it into fan fiction, videos, fan films, cosplay, and a range of other participatory practices that develop it in new directions. Both commercial and fan community expansion contribute to a new mode of storytelling that is increasingly difficult to describe through adaptation theory.

Readings/Bibliography

Two case studies to be chosen from:

Margaret Atwood, Il racconto dell'ancella

Il racconto dell'ancella, directed by Volker Schlöndorff, 1990

The Handmaid's Tale, tv series 2017- (first season)

or 

Umberto Eco, Il nome della rosa, Bompiani, 2020

Il nome della rosa, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986

Umberto Eco, Milo Manara, Il nome della rosa, Oblomov, 2023

Il nome della rosa - serie TV, directed by Giacomo Battiato, 2019 [optional]

or

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale, Salami 1998

Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale, directed by Chris Columbus 2001

 

Critical essays:

Jay David Bolter, Richard Grusin, Remediation - Competizione e integrazione tra media vecchi e nuovi, Guerini 2005, chapters 1 and 2

Giuliana Benvenuti, edited by, La letteratura oggi. Romanzo, editoria, transmedialità, Einaudi 2023. Chapters:La letteratura nel sistema mediale contemporaneo; Un longseller transmediale. Il nome della rosa di Umberto Eco; L'autrice e il fandom. La saga di Harry Potter e J.K Rowling; Appropriazioni femministe e commerciali. Il racconto dell'Ancella di Margaret Atwood.

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Teaching methods

The lessons are, most of all, lectures held by the teacher. During the lessons, students will be encouraged to participate. We will use also some tools to support teaching, especially power-point. Movies and documentaries will be shown for the contextualization of readings scheduled. Finally, scholars will be invited for some specific issues and for the presentation of some texts and authors.

Assessment methods

The oral test consists in an oral interview which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students. The students will be invited to discuss the tests on the course programme. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the course programme.

Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark.

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Benvenuti