Jane Austen: from the Page to the Screen University of Westminster - Arts, Business & Sciences Program Summer 2016 July 3-Week - London

For the past twenty years or more, no British Sunday evening has seemed complete without a Jane Austen adaptation on television. All of her classic novels have been transferred from the page to the small screen and never fail to transfix British and international audiences. Her famously 'timeless' novels have been adapted for the big screen as well. Who can forget Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy in the notoriously inaccurate 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice? And each time the Austen purists wail that the film or TV adaptation has not been 'true' to their heroine, that the characters are too crudely drawn or too beautiful, or too 'modernized', the dialogue dumbed-down and the plot mangled. The controller of BBC serials said of their 2009 adaptation of Emma, - we didn't want stuffy period characters. This is not a high Austen comedy, it's modern. - This module allows you to explore the fascinating process of transferring a literary classic from the page to the screen. We will compare plot, character and dialogue in Austen's originals and some of the better and least known adaptations. Can screen writers and directors remain 'true' to Jane? Or does adaptation for the screen always result in desecration?

NOTE: this module may include additional costs for museum tickets.