![]() ![]() ![]() Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation provides a framework although I do not assign the book as required reading. In the course of the discussion, I introduce them to the vocabulary and methods of film analysis. In class, we go over the things they observed, and I provide some historical context. Students view the film on YouTube before coming to class and make written notes on omissions, additions, and changes made to tone, plot, conflict, and characterization. I use either the 1939 animated Gulliver’s Travels by Max Fleisher or the 1960 Three Worlds of Gulliver, both fairly easy for beginners to work with. I have found it helpful to teach an adaptation so that students understand why a film is different from its source text and why satire must adapt to different times and genres. Since many of them know Gulliver only through film, they are surprised to discover how different the book is from the Ted Danson and Jack Black productions. The course concludes with students collaboratively writing updated adaptations of Swift’s great work. ![]() We start with short prose like “A Modest Proposal” to unravel Swift’s satiric methods, hone our skills on the poetry, and spend the last half of the course closely reading Gulliver’s Travels. I teach a course on Jonathan Swift to first-year students, most of whom are not planning to major in English. ![]()
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