SLL30050 Adaptations

Academic Year 2020/2021

This module will explore how a particular work of literature is adapted and transferred from its source culture into another culture or medium and how the target culture engages with the (usually) creatively modified work. This may first involve translation into another language (interlingual translation), and then into an entirely different genre and even medium (intermedial/intersemiotic translation, e.g. film, opera on screen). The process and products of translation are of interest to all lovers of culture, but particularly to language students. We will see what happens when a given work is translated or adapted in other ways, which strategies and theories are employed, and contemplate issues of fidelity, ownership, authority, reception, intertextuality, intercultural and intertemporal communication. The texts will be available in English translation, but students with an advanced reading knowledge of the languages concerned will be expected to study the texts in the original and thus shed light on the translation and/or adaptation process for the other students. The module will be divided into three thematic blocks.
The module is a core module for BA International Modern Languages students. It may also be of special interest to international students who are spending one trimester or the full year in UCD.

Show/hide contentOpenClose All

Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
- apply some theoretical aspects of translation and adaptation theory to the translation and adaptation of literary texts;
- identify the criteria involved in the translation and adaptation of texts into a new medium;
- consider the dynamic between translator, adapter/director, text and target-language receiver;
- understand how translation and intermedial adaptation contribute both to the reception of the original work and to intercultural communication in general;
- express critical opinions, oral and written, and in an appropriate register, on the works studied;

Indicative Module Content:

Students will explore different forms of adaptation of pieces of cultural production into another cultural and/or linguistic context, another genre of another medium.
They will be introduced to important aspects of adaptation and translation theory and address issues such as fidelity, medium specificity, adaptation as process rather than product, domestication, vs foreignization.
Three case studies, focussing on different examples of interlingual or intersemiotic (transfer into a different medium) transfer will be studied, starting off with examining the translation of Harry Potter into different languages, and then moving on to examples of opera and film adaptation.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

24
Practical

4
Specified Learning Activities

34
Autonomous Student Learning

48
Total

110
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Due to current health restriction, the module will be tuaght online until at least the March break. If givernment and university health guidelines permit, we may be able to move some activities on campus in the latter part of the module.
Online teaching will be delivered in two live session per week in via the virtual classroom, with a mixture of more formal mini-lectures, interactive exercises and smaller discussion groups. Regularly assigned homework tasks form the basis for those discussions. In the first block, students will prepare a short group presentation.
For the films that are relevant to the module, access to the material will be facilitated, which may involve screenings through zoom or the virtual classroom.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Requirements:

Advanced reading skills in at least one of the languages taught in the School of Languages and Literatures (to level B2/C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference).

Learning Recommendations:

An interest in literature and the performing arts, as well as in translation and adaptation.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Incompatibles:
SLL30030 - Cultural Transference


 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: Open-book exam at the end of the semester with a choice of questions Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

60
Essay: 1,500 word essay in English Week 7 n/a Graded No

40

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Students will be self-assessing their group work for the group presentation in week 4, which is part of the formative assessment for this module. Each group will also review one presentation by their peers. Individual feedback will be provided for the essay which is due in week 7.

Name Role
Dr Siobhan Donovan Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Assoc Professor Jeremy Squires Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Sabine Strumper-Krobb Lecturer / Co-Lecturer