LMKA_a16 Adaptation and intermedia Studies

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Veronika Bromová, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites (in Czech)
TYP_STUDIA ( ND )
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The twofold structure of the course mirrors not only the kinship of both disciplines, but also the relationship that defines these two aspects against the path of the whole programme: building on the methodological basis set in the previous phase, this course tends to widen their scope (intermedia studies in relation to poetics and theory of intertextuality, adaptation studies in relation to intermediality), as well as open the possibility for further study (in relation to the poetics of transmedial narration).

Intermediality is building on the prerequisites set on the Work of Literature course: observation, analysis, interpretation, contextualization. Its objective is to enhance students’ literary skills by transcending the limits of written text and thus reaching an intermedial poetics. In other words, the student is to acquire a set of instruments for observation and critical assessment of a wide range of artistic and other medial products, their common structural and evolutionary relationships, as well as their place in contemporary cultural communication. This shall eventually lead to answering questions on, for example, Jirásek’s “painter’s vision”, the relationship between television fairy tale and its traditional literary counterpart, the similarities between today’s flashmob and the so-called tableau vivant from the late19th century, the additional meaning generated by video renditions of Shakespeare’s sonnets, etc. The methodological basis comprises the cannon of intermediality (L. Elleström, I. O. Rajewsky, W. Wolf, and others), complemented by semiotics, narratology, art history, as well as findings in Visual and Medial Studies. The regularly updated choice of set materials will correspond with individual manifestations of intermediality, as well as their effects in the reception process.

Adaptation studies, having emerged from the study of the transfer from novel to film, is connected to the study of intermediality through the principle of transmediation, which is a transfer of a verbal whole to an audio-visual medium, the principle of intramedial adaptation, or adapting a content to another genre or audience while retaining the medium (for instance the rewriting of a classical story in Shakespeare’s drama, the remake of a successful movie, etc.), or the principle of remediation, which is a transfer to a technologically more advanced media while retaining the same semiotic system. When studying these transformations in their genesis and actuation, the theory of intermediality can offer a terminological coverage for a whole line of occurrences. The older or nowadays alternative branch of adaptation studies, being a form of genetic research into the relationship between literature and film, can be perceived as a specification of the intermedial approach, which absorbs the knowledge of film studies. On the other hand, the methodologically plural Adaptation Studies of today (Kamilla Elliott, Thomas Leitch, Eckart Voigts, Linda Hutcheon, and others) are much more open to the research of wider social (political, economic, technological) aspects of cultural production and reception, where the spectator communities (fans), often well-organized on internet platforms, play a substantial role.
Learning outcomes
The course objectives are: - to enhance the students' skills in interdisciplinary communication, i.e. the ability to articulate the problems of examining art in a way that these shall be accessible and fruitful for professionals in other fields, as well. - to create the conditions for reflection upon a work of art not only in the context of a given art but also in the context of culture as "medial discourse", and for argumentation in favour of the specificity of art forms (including those seemingly obsolete or obvious) and the mechanisms of their reception, for instance "the defense of the experiential value of reading". The intermedial approach shall equip the student not only with competences for identification and classification of intermedial discourses. - to create prerequisites for innovative and in-depth interpretation of the works of art, both isolated, in its genetic relations to other works or media, or by a comparative tracking of parallel occurrences that transcend the boundaries of intermediality, such as the cultural construction of identity.
Syllabus
  • Intermediality as a set of occurrences and a methodological potential. Intermediality and intertextuality. Defining the terms: medium, medial product; primary classification of media: modality system. Basic range of intermedial relations: intermediality, intramediality, multimediality, transmediality. Transmediation and remediation. Medial specificity. Thematization and highlighting. Constructive intermediality: storytelling as transmedial structure (verbal storytelling, comic book, arena show etc., according to the course's needs). Between story and scene, storytelling and description: ekphrasis. Genetic intermediality: especially multiple transmediation (for example transposition of a canonic work of literature to the form of a comic book or a theatre play). Defining the terms: adaptation in a wider field of textual transformations and transmediations (adaptation/appropriation of the written text or painting). Adaptation as a choice (digest): literature in film. Faithful and unfaithful adaptations. Types of adaptation: adaptation as a palimpsest (transtextual and dialogical approaches); transcultural adaptation. Adaptation as a process (production and reception). Adaptation and remediation as part of the media practices of the 21st century. Typical approaches: manipulation, parody, remixes, reboots, and mashups.
Teaching methods
lectures, discussions, essay
Assessment methods
- active participation in discussion
- individual interpretation of a chosen work or a group of works from intermedia or adaptation point of view, including methodological auto-reflexion.
written test
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: in blocks.
General note: Předmět bude otevřen a vyučován při minimálním počtu 6 zapsaných studujících.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 0.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/LMKA_a16