LFU:online

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Analyze key works of European literature and their film adaptations, identifying how narrative, style, and cultural context change across media.

2. Apply major theories of film adaptation to compare literary texts with their cinematic versions.

3. Produce written and oral assessments—such as critical essays, presentations, or response papers—that interpret and compare fiction and film within their European and transnational cultural contexts.

In this course, students will study adaptations of great books of European literature into film. Students will learn about the main theories of film adaptation, reflecting on the interplay between literature and film and media within different European linguistic contexts. Students are expected to analyze critically each piece, distinguishing cultural layers and formal techniques specific to each medium. Some of the questions that shape this class are: What role does European literature play in film history and industry? How is the written word adapted to the screen? How are cultural context and narrative techniques translated from one medium to another? How does the meaning of a literary work change when adapted into film? Students will discuss and write about these literary and cinematic works through debates, response papers, and presentations.

This class examines great books and film adaptations from different European countries such as Spain, France, and Austria (as exemplified in the adaptation of Gustav Meyrink's Gothic novel The Golem (1915) by filmmaker Paul Wegener in 1920). In this way, students will learn about the ways that fiction and film adaptations grapple with European history and the region's multiple cultural identities.

The University of New Orleans International Summer School program has a mandatory class attendance policy. All students are required to attend class for all morning classes and any required afternoon and/or weekend fields trips and lectures. No unexcused absences are allowed. However, LFU students who have to miss a UNO class due to LFU examinations in the first two weeks of our program, can receive one excused absence for this. Any further unexcused absences will result in an academic penalty. Each faculty member determines the penalty for missed classes. Most professors deduct a letter grade for each additional missed class day. For details, please refer to your course syllabi, which will be distributed on the first day of class. The listed ECTS credits are a recommendation by the University of New Orleans Innsbruck Summer School, based on contact hours, anticipated out-of-classroom requirements such as field trips, and projected workload for readings, assignments, and exam preparation. Mail: Center-New-Orleans@uibk.ac.at