Iyengar, Sujata
TR 9:35 AM
Park Hall 0139
ENGL3325: Lit and Adaptation (59625)
Iyengar, Sujata
TR 9:35 AM
Park Hall 0139
NB Required Movie Screenings on Wednesdays at 6 in Park 139 on the following dates: 21st August, 4th September, 18th September, 9th October, (16th October-optional), 20th November
Description
Investigate the motives, pleasures, and consequences of adapting oral tales, plays, novels, poems, films, musicals, non-fiction texts and other cultural products among different media and genres.
We'll take for our baselines at least one European and one African folk or fairy tale and consider how adaptors and appropriators such as Samuel Richardson, Walt Disney, Toni Morrison, and Percival Everett -- and other filmmakers, musicians, and novelists -- adapt both baseline story or myth to other genres, times, and contexts.
We will trace Charles Perrault's Cendrillon (Cinderella) from its origins in the "persecuted heroine" archetype in world folklore through Samuel Richardson's epistolary epic Pamela (1741), its Disney incarnation in the animated film Cinderella (1950) and two late 20th and early 21st films that foreground labor and sexual politics in Pretty Woman (1990) and Maid in Manhattan (2002). We conclude our “Cinderella” unit with a discussion of the film Ella Enchanted (2004) and an introduction to the Chilean folk tale “María La Cenicienta” and the comic adaptation written by Chilean feminist playwright Amelia Solar di Claro.
Then we turn to accounts of trickster characters in world folklore who escape sticky traps set by their oppressors, and and see how George Terrell and the other enslaved people whose stories Joel Chandler Harris wrote down turned these tales into the story of the wily Br'er Rabbit, his entrapment by the “Tar Baby,” and his escape from Br’er Fox. We contrast Disney's deeply misguided and and offensive stereotypes in the film Song of the South (removed from the Disney channel, but accessible through the Internet Archive) with Toni Morrison's retelling of her grandmother’s “tar baby” story in her novel of the same name. Our journey ends with Percival Everett's novel Erasure and ifs adaptation to the Oscar-nominated film, American Fiction.
Alongside our primary texts we'll discuss and try out theoretical accounts of adaptation (including translation theory) from Linda Hutcheon’s Adaptation, supplemented with lectures on the work of Douglas Lanier, MJ Kidnie, Lawrence Venuti, Roshni Mooneeram and others.
In addition to regular in-class writing or quizzes, students will complete a final project that will ask them to adapt a “Tar Baby” story (we will be reading at least 14 of them!) and to write an introduction to their work explaining which text they are adapting and why, the theories they read and used to develop their rationale, and why and how they made particular choices in their adaptation.
Please note that some of the historical texts we are reading, as well as some of the contemporary fiction, use foul language. The historical texts also contain sentiments that are highly offensive to present-day readers, with very different attitudes expressed towards sexual harassment, assault, and consent, race in America, women’s work, and labor relations.
Disclaimer: The syllabus represents a plan for the course; deviations may be necessary.
MATERIALS
These books, articles, chapters, and films are required for all students:
“Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper.” 1922. By Charles Perrault. Illustrated by John Austen. London, pp. 37-44. Online Course Reserves (chapter, children’s illustrated book)
Cinderella (1950). Walt Disney. Available through UGA, Swank Digital Campus, https://digitalcampus.swankmp.net/univofgeorgia369029/watch/4CE87AC752D284D5?referrer=direct (Film)
American Fiction (2023) – come to class screening or pay to watch on streaming service of your choice (Film)
Corrigan, Timothy. 2004. A Short Guide to Writing About Film. New York. (physical book on two-hour loan at library, or purchase your own copy)
Ella Enchanted (2004) – come to class screening, or use physical DVD at library (Main Library has viewing stations and DVD drives for borrowing)
Everett, Percival (2001). Erasure. University Press of New England (physical book on overnight loan; ebook available through UGA Libraries as single chapters; or buy your own copy).
Harris, Joel Chandler. 1880. “Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy,” “The Wonderful Tar Baby Story,” and “How Mr. Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox,” from Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, ed. Robert Hemenway. Penguin: 1982. Pp. 55-62. (book chapters) (in course reserves)
Wagner, Bryan. “Prologue” and “Twelve Examples.” 2017. The Tar Baby: A Global History. Princeton UP, pp. ix-xv and pp. 126-168. (book chapters—course reserves available online; physical copy on overnight loan)
Hutcheon, Linda, with Siobhan O’Flynn. 2013. A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge. (ebook available from library, physical book on overnight loan, or buy your own copy)
Maid in Manhattan (2002) – come to class screening or pay to watch on streaming service of your choice (Film)
Morrison, Toni. 2004. Tar Baby. New York. (buy your own or consult physical copy on overnight reserve)
Pretty Woman (1990)—come to class screening, or use physical DVD at library (Main Library has viewing stations and DVD drives for borrowing) (Film)
Perrault, Charles. 1697. “Cendrillon.” Translated by Sujata Iyengar (handout)
Richardson, Samuel. 1740. Pamela. Edited by Peter Sabor, Penguin, 2003. (physical book on overnight loan, or buy your own copy, or read Project Gutenberg version -- just be sure to read the correct chapters!)
Song of the South (section): The section I will show in class or for students to watch alone is time-stamped 44:00-58.26 on the archive.org recording: https://archive.org/details/Songofthesouth4K (Film)
SUPPLEMENTAL readings and viewings (available as course reserves):
Cinderfella (1960). (Film) (released on DVD by Paramount; available streaming; a truly terrible movie)
Folkenflik, Robert. 1993. “Pamela: Domestic Servitude, Marriage, and the Novel.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 253-68. (article)
Gates, Henry Louis. 1988. The Signifying Monkey (ebook)
Goyal, Yogita. 2006. “The Gender of Diaspora in Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby.” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 52, no. 2 (article)
Kerfoot, Alicia. 2018. “Virtuous Footwear: Pamela’s Shoe Heel and Cinderilla’s ‘Little Glass Slipper.’” Eighteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 343-71. (article)
Knadler, Stephen. 2005. ‘Blanca from the Block': ‘Whiteness and the Transnational Latina Body.” Genders, Vol. 41 (article)
Levine, Gail Carson. 1997. Ella Enchanted. (children’s novel)
Magness, Patricia. 1989. “The Knight and the Princess: The Structure of Courtly Love in Toni Morrison’s ‘Tar Baby.’” South Atlantic Review, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 85–100. https://doi.org/10.2307/3199799. (article)
Montgomery, Maxine. 2010. “Don’t Look B(l)ack: Spectatorship and Toni Morrison’s ‘Tar Baby,’” CLA Journal, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 36-52. (article)
Ohmer, Susan. 1993. “‘That Rags to Riches Stuff’: Disney’s Cinderella and the Cultural Space of Animation.” Film History, vol. 5, pp. 231–49. (article)
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Cinderella’ (1997), available only on Disney+ (film)
Russett, Margaret. 2005. “Race under Erasure: For Percival Everett, ‘a Piece of Fiction.’” Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 358–68. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=f631b45f-5401-3c8d-a436-fed45ddffe94. (article)
Solnit, Rebecca, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. 2019. Chapter 3, “Lizards,” and Chapter 4, “Friends.” Cinderella Liberator, Haymarket, pp. 15-20. (children’s picture book)
Song of the South (1946), full film, https://archive.org/details/Songofthesouth4K (Film)
Stone, Kay. “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us.” The Journal of American Folklore 88, no. 347 (1975): 42–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/539184.
Tosi, Laura. 2001. “Smart Princesses, Clever Choices. The Deconstruction of the Cinderella Paradigm and the Shaping of Female Cultural Identity in Adult and Children's Contemporary Rewritings of Fairy Tales.” Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, vol. 21. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.200110296
Websites
https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html
Permission to reproduce tales for educational use:
https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/intro-pages/faq.html
Additional, short, required readings will be handed out in class or distributed via eLC from the instructor.
The syllabus represents a plan the course; deviations may be necessary.
Draft Schedule:
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14-Aug |
First Day of Classes |
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15-Aug |
First day of our class |
Cendrillon/Cinderella/Perrault/Iyengar |
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16-Aug |
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19-Aug |
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20-Aug |
Drop/Add Deadline |
Hutcheon, ch. 1 |
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21-Aug |
Screening: Cinderella (1950) |
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22-Aug |
Cinderella/Cendrillon |
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KEY: blue= UGA Administrative Dates |
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23-Aug |
green=UGA holidays or mandatory no-class days |
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26-Aug |
purple=guest speaker -- TBC, maybe different room |
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27-Aug |
Pamela (Richardson, 1740), Letters 1-8 (you can skim) |
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orange: regular class day |
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28-Aug |
red=major assignment due OR film screening; film screening may be in different room |
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29-Aug |
Pamela, letters 9-17 (ok to skim) |
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yellow: instructor away, independent assignment |
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30-Aug |
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2-Sep |
Labor Day (no classes; UGA holiday) |
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3-Sep |
In-class midterm: Cinderella and Cendrillon |
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4-Sep |
Screening: Pretty Woman (1990) |
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Th |
5-Sep |
Hutcheon ch. 2 |
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6-Sep |
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9-Sep |
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10-Sep |
UGA Symposium on the Book, Special Collections Libraries Auditorium 9.35 |
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11-Sep |
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12-Sep |
Pamela, letters 18-24, ok to skim |
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13-Sep |
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16-Sep |
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17-Sep |
Hutcheon, ch. 3 |
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18-Sep |
Screening: Maid in Manhattan (2002) |
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Th |
19-Sep |
Pamela, letters 24-28, ok to skim |
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20-Sep |
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23-Sep |
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24-Sep |
Appendix from Wagner, The Tar Baby: A Global History |
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25-Sep |
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26-Sep |
NO CLASS MEETING: secondary reading assigned |
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27-Sep |
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30-Sep |
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1-Oct |
NO CLASS MEETING: start written assignment |
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3-Oct |
NO CLASS MEETING: revise written assignment |
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4-Oct |
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7-Oct |
Midterm |
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8-Oct |
Pamela, letters/chatpers 28-end, ok to skim |
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9-Oct |
Screening: Ella Enchanted (2004) |
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Th |
10-Oct |
Hutcheon, ch. 4 |
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11-Oct |
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14-Oct |
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15-Oct |
Maria La Cenicienta (visiting PhD student Yennadim Chamile Media Reales, from Chile) |
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16-Oct |
OPTIONAL screening: Song of the South (1946) |
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Th |
17-Oct |
Storyteller Ms Josie Bailey (professional storyteller based in Atlanta) |
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18-Oct |
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21-Oct |
Withdrawal deadline |
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22-Oct |
Harris, "The Wonderful Tar Baby" and How Br'er Rabbit escaped |
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23-Oct |
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24-Oct |
Chilean trickster stories (visiting PhD student Yennadim Chamile Media Reales) |
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25-Oct |
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28-Oct |
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29-Oct |
Morrison, Tar Baby, "Foreword" and Chapters 1-4 inclusive |
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30-Oct |
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31-Oct |
Morrison, Tar Baby, Chapters 5,6 |
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1-Nov |
Fall Break (no classes) |
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4-Nov |
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5-Nov |
Morrison, Tar Baby, Chapters 7-end |
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6-Nov |
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7-Nov |
In-class midterm: Toni Morrison and Harris's version of the "Tar Baby" story |
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8-Nov |
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11-Nov |
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12-Nov |
Hutcheon, ch. 6 and Afterword |
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13-Nov |
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14-Nov |
Everett, Erasure, Chapters 1-6 and "My Pafology" |
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15-Nov |
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18-Nov |
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19-Nov |
Everett, Erasure, Chapters 7-10 |
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20-Nov |
Screening: American Fiction (2023) |
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21-Nov |
Everett, Erasure, Chapters 11-13 |
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22-Nov |
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25-Nov |
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26-Nov |
LAST CLASS: Everett, Erasure, Chapters 14-18 |
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W |
27-Nov |
Thanksgiving Break (no classes) |
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28-Nov |
Thanksgiving Break (no classes; campus closed) |
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29-Nov |
Thanksgiving Break (no classes; campus closed) |
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2-Dec |
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3-Dec |
Last day of classes; Friday class schedule in effect |
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W |
4-Dec |
Reading Day (no classes, no exams) |
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Th |
5-Dec |
Final Project and all assignments due between 8am-11am |
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F |
6-Dec |
Final Exams |
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9-Dec |
Final Exams |
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10-Dec |
Final Exams |
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11-Dec |
Final Exams |
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12-Dec |
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F |
13-Dec |
Commencement |
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16-Dec |
Grade Submission Deadline (grades due by noon) |
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