Abstract
Although the teaching of adaptation in universities has been around for some time, the last 15 years have seen an explosion of scholarship and critical approaches that have influenced higher education syllabi in multifarious ways. However, even a brief look at course descriptions available online suggest that certain texts appear repeatedly on syllabi and that there are obvious similarities in the ways these courses are structured.1 This chapter examines these tendencies by offering a brief survey of a range of modules on adaptation offered in a number of universities in the US, the UK, and Australia to show that there are some ‘canonical’ primary texts and critical texts that underpin the study of the field and to some extent define its terms. It will then explore the benefits and limits of these canons and conclude with a discussion of the value and limits of a mixed cultural studies approach used by the author.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See Virginia Wright Wexman, ‘Evaluating the text: canon formation and screen scholarship’, Cinema Journal 2 Winter, 1985, 62–65
Jonathon Rosenbaum, Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons (Baltimore: John Hopkins University, 2004).
Paul Schrader, ‘Canon Fodder’, Film Comment 42(5), Sept/Oct 2006, 33–49.
John Guillory, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
Robert Stam, ‘Introduction: A Theory and Practice of Adaptation’, in Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation, ed. Robert Stam and Alessandro Raengo (Malden and Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), p. 11.
Thomas Leitch, ‘Adaptation, the Genre’, Adaptation 1(2), 2008, 106–120.
Guerric DeBona, Film Adaptation in the Hollywood Studio Era (Chicago: University of Illiois, 2010), p. 6.
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation (London: Routledge, 2006), p. xiv.
Robert Stam, ‘The Dialogics of Adaptation’, in Film Adaptation, ed. James Naremore (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2000), p. 64.
Dudley Andrew, ‘Adaptation’, in Film Adaptation, ed. James Naremore (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2000), p. 35.
Shelley Cobb, ‘Adaptable Bridget: generic intertextuality and postfeminism in Bridget Jones’s Diary’ in Authorship in Film Adaptation, ed. Jack Boozer (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008), pp. 281–304.
Angela McRobbie, The Uses of Cultural Studies (London: Sage Publications, 2005), p. 71.
Key publications include: Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra, Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007)
Hilary Radner, Neo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture (London: Routledge, 2009)
Rosalind Gill, Gender and the Media (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006)
Hannah Hamad, Postfeminism and Paternity in Contemporary US Film: Framing Fatherhood (London: Routledge, 2013)
Joel Gwynne and Nadine Muller, Postfeminism and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Angela McRobbie, The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change London: Sage Publications, 2009), p. 18.
Diane Negra, ‘Structural Integrity, Historical Reversion, and the Post 9/11 Chick-Flick’, Feminist Media Studies, 8(1), 2008, 51–68.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Shelley Cobb
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cobb, S. (2014). Canons, Critical Approaches, and Contexts. In: Cartmell, D., Whelehan, I. (eds) Teaching Adaptations. Teaching the New English. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311139_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311139_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-31115-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31113-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)