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

The course investigates the relationship among literature, cinema, television and new media as transnational narratives. More specifically, we will explore material which would have been analysed under the shed of theory of adaptation (e.g. from novels to movies) as well as intermedia storytelling. The course present two case studies of dystopia.
A transmedia story represents the integration of entertainment experiences across a range of different media platforms. A story might spread from literature into cinema, television, the web, and so forth, picking up new consumers as it goes and allowing the most dedicated fans to drill deeper. The fans, in turn, may translate their interests in the franchise into concordances and wikipedia entries, fan fiction, fan films, cosplay, game mods, and a range of other participatory practices that further extend the story world in new directions. Both the commercial and grassroots expansion of narrative universes contribute to a new mode of storytelling, one which is based on an encyclopedic expanse of information which gets put together differently by each individual consumer as well as processed collectively by social networks and online knowledge communities.

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.

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.

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Benvenuti