Entry requirements

General entry requirements + English 6.

Progression level in relation to degree requirements

The course is not part of any main field of study.

Course contents

In this course we study how stories travel across different media and what happens to a story when it adapted to a new medium. We also study how whole storyworlds emerge and evolve. We make use of contemporary theories to understand how stories are told in, and how they adapt to, a mediatized culture. We engage with theories on storytelling in a broad sense, and narrative theory tied to specific media, such as literature, film, graphic novels, audio and interactive media. We look at how different media express narrative structures differently and how a specific medium informs how the narrative is constructed. In addition, analyse how different media play with and problematize narration. In order to understand stories, we also read, watch, engage with a number of stories in different media, and analyse them. Students furthermore produce their own stories, using material and technology appropriate for their story. Students are invited to work with a selection of media, which will vary, e.g. audio, video, comics, interactive storytelling and escape rooms.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student

1. is able to account for narrative structures and features in stories told in different media, with the point of departure in narrative and media theory (1);
2. can analyze stories in different media (2);
3. shows knowledge and understanding of contemporary theories of storytelling in a mediatized culture and how different narrations travel in and across different media (3);
4. displays practical and creative skills in telling their own stories in various media (4).

Learning activities

The course’s pedagogy is based on active participation, and on combining theoretical study with practical and creative work. The learning activities are lectures, seminars, workshops and group work.

Assessment

The course is assessed through 4 assignments: two written analytical assignments à 7,5 hp testing learning outcomes 1, 2 and 3, and two production assignments testing learning outcome 4.

Course literature

The First Module

• Abbott, Porter. The Cambridge lntroduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Adaptation Studies: New Challenges, New Directions. Eds. Jørgen Bruhn, Anne Gjelsvik, Eirik Frisvold Hanssen. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. ch 4-5
• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. (any edition).
• Baker, Jo. Longbourn. London: Doubleday, 2013.
• Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985 Ch 3-7
• Bourdieu, Pierre. ”The forms of Capital.” In Richardson, J., Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Westport, CT: Greenwood. 1986. Ch 1.
• The Fan Fiction Studies Reader. Eds. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse. Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 2014. Ch 1,3,8
• Fernandez-Vara, Clara. “Game Spaces Speak Volumes.” 2011. http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/Game-Spaces-Speak-Volumes.pdf
• Fielding, Helen. Bridget Jones’s Diary. London: Picador, 2014. (any edition).
• Grahame-Smith, Seth. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the Classic Regency Romance--Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2009.
• Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge 2006.
• Jane Austen in Hollywood. Eds. Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield. Lexington: University Press of Centucky, 2001. Ch 2, 4, 5, 6.
• Kolbas, Dean. Critical Theory and the Literary Canon. Westview Press, 2001. Ch 2-3
• Pride and Prejudice. Dir Joe Wright. 2005
• Pride and Prejudice. Dir Simon Langton. 1995
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Dir. Burr Steers. 2016
• Storyworlds across media. Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology. Eds. Marie-Laure Ryan and Jan-Noel Thon. Lincoln, London: Universtiy of Nebraska Press, 2014. Ch 1, 12.
• World Building. Transmedia, Fans, Industries. Ed. Marta Boni. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University press, 2017.

The Second Module

• Aarseth, Espen. “Narrative Theory of Games,” 2012. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2282365
• Cohen, Paula Marantz. What Alice Knew. A most Curious Tale of Henry James & Jack the Ripper. Illinois: Sourcebooks Landmark, 2010.

Frasca, Gonzalo. “Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and difference between (video)games and narrative” 1999. http:www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm

• Greonsteen, Thierry Comics and Narration. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 2013.
• Jenkins, Henry. ”Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” First person. New media as story, performance, and game. Ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan. 2003. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2003.
• Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Lodger. Any edition.
• Moore, Alan and Eddie Campbell. From Hell: Being a Melodrama in Sixteen Parts. London: Knockabout Comics, 2000.
• Rubenhold, Hallie. The Five. The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019
• Sugden, Philip. The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. London: Robinson, 1994.

Additional texts may be included in the course.

Course evaluation

Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students. (HF 1:14)

Interim rules

If a course is no longer offered, or has undergone significant changes, the students must be offered two opportunities for re-examination based on the syllabus that applied at the time of registration, for a period of one year after the changes have been implemented.

Additional information

If a student has a Learning support decision, the examiner has the right to provide the student with an adapted test, or to allow the student to take the exam in a different format. The syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.