The start date of this class has been changed since initial publication*
The best books become movies in our minds as we read them. As we turn the pages, we “watch” characters fall in love, suffer through the most lamentable tragedies, or struggle mightily against all odds. Therefore, when a novel gets adapted into a film, every well-read audience member has, in some sense, already done the work of the casting director, the cinematographer, and the costume designer. Directors of novel-to-film adaptations face the difficult task of meeting a diverse set of established expectations. What happens when those expectations aren’t met, or even when they're met too well? What is the virtue or vice involved with adapting a story from the page to the screen? What gets lost in translation?

In this course, we’ll pair three novels with their film adaptations, spending one week discussing a book and the next its movie version. In the process, we’ll consider how and why adaptations change their source texts and what these changes communicate about the importance of form in storytelling.

Texts and Film Adaptations:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)
Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Pride and Prejudice (dir. Joe Wright, 2005)

Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
Devil in a Blue Dress (dir. Carl Franklin, 1995)

Five-Week Course Schedule | Wednesdays
May 31 | 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Jun 07 | 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Jun 14 | 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Jun 21 | 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
*Jun 28 | 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM - Class time is extended to cover the book and movie adaptation in one session.

This class will be held in-person at WIH and simulcast via Zoom