Paper #2: Old Wine in New Bottles, due Nov.21st

British Literature to 1800

Paper #2: Old Wine in New Bottles

INTRO: Everything old is new again, nowhere more so than in the entertainment industry. When Hollywood or Netflix runs out of ideas, they always look to the great literature of the past, with their seemingly inexhaustible supply of great plots, characters, and  dialogue. In recent years, there have been new adaptations of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (starring Dakota Johnson), Dracula (starring Morfydd Clark), and of course Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power (also starring Morfydd Clark!). In some cases, people now know the adaptation better than the actual work, as with movies such as Clueless (Austen’s Emma) or Ten Things I Hate About You (Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew). In the right hands, an adaptation can not only give new life to the old work, but can challenge how we see and understand it.

PROMPT: For this assignment, I want you to pitch a new adaptation of ONE of our last three works—As You Like It, Pamela, or Northanger Abbey—to Netflix as a potential series or film. Assume that the taste-makers at Netflix know nothing about the work in question, so in your proposal I want you to do the following:

(1)  Briefly summarize the main plot or action of the work in a way that will make it seem like a sure-fire hit to modern audiences; suggest its connection to modern-day works that it may have influenced (don’t do a play-by-play, just enough to fill them in and make it seem exciting)

(2)  Highlight one or two of the main characters that would be most relatable to modern viewers and explain why.

(3)  Discuss 1-2 scenes from the work that shows this character(s) in the best/most interesting light; help them see why this character(s) is so dynamic and interesting. QUOTE from the book and examine—close reading!

(4)  Finally, conclude by explaining how you would translate the work into a modern setting (in other words, outside the Elizabethan or Eighteenth-Century era). How could you restage the piece in a modern setting? Who would the characters be today, and where would they be? Would you change their names, careers, relationships? After all, we don’t really have servants today like Pamela…so what would be a close facsimile? Show how the work can easily translate to a 21^st century locale so that it doesn’t look like a history lesson. You don’t have to nail down every detail, but do try to show us how you could accomplish a translation that would look modern but still feel classic.

BONUS: This part is optional, but if you like, try to also re-write 1-2 pages of the book into modern conversational English to go along with #4. Since this will be a series, you might want to focus on dialogue, but you could also do the narrative if you plan to have a Narrator in your series/show. But show how you can adapt the actual ideas into different language without changing much. In the last week of class, we’ll share our adaptation ideas with the class, and I encourage you to read this passage to the class. It could be fun to guess which passage you chose based on the language alone.

DUE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21^st BY 5pm [no class that day]