NOTE: The course information given here is subject to change!

This course studies the relation between literature and film via a detailed analysis of popular movies and the literary texts—and narratives in particular—that inspired them. Although we shall discuss some historical and theoretical texts, particularly at the beginning the course, the emphasis overall lies on close readings of the chosen texts (e.g. Solaris, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?) and the corresponding films. A central goal of this course is to question the “fidelity” model on which most comparative analyses of film and literature are (still) based. A second goal is to explore the central theme commonly shared by all texts and movies we will discuss, namely post-humanism. What does the term mean? How has the non-human “other” of humanity been depicted differently in literature and film over the last 200 years?  

Texts

• Timothy Corrigan (ed), Literature and Film. An Introduction and Reader, 2nd ed. (London and New York: Routledge, 2012).
• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1831)
• Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)
• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
• Franz Kafka, The Trial
• Stanislav Lem, Solaris (1961)
• Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? (1968)
• Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006)

Films

• Murnau, Nosferatu (1922)
• Whale, Frankenstein (1931)
• Browning, Dracula (1931)
• Fisher, Horrors of Dracula (1958)
• Crain, Blacula (1972)
• Tarkovsky, Solaris (1972)
• Scott, Blade Runner (1982)
• Coppola, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
• Coppola, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
• Soderbergh, Solaris (2002)
• Hillcoat, The Road (2009)