Unit information: Translation and Adaptation in 2021/22

Unit name	Translation and Adaptation
Unit code	THTR30007
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Krebs
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Theatre
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit introduces students to a range of issues related to adaptation and translation in theatre and performance. Covering areas such as conceptual approaches to the investigation of adaptation and translation practices and histories, as well as practical approaches to adaptation and translation, this unit will engage critically and practically with such modes of re-writing. Starting with a historical perspective of the practice of and distinction between adaptation and translation, students will encounter a whole spectrum of examples, ranging from the popular, such as the musical, to the avant-garde and postdramatic. Students will explore the relationship between notions of authorship and original which form the basis of historic understandings of adaptation and translation as process and product. A range of ways of working with source texts in order to produce adaptations and/or translations will be introduced and students will explore strategies for re-writing and re-imagining a variety of texts. These practical explorations will be analysed in terms of their artistic, economic, political and ideological contexts.

Aims

• To develop a critical understanding of histories of adaptation and translation in theatre and performance
• To be able to contextualise contemporary adaptation and translation practices
• To explore critically a range of adaptation and translation practices.
• To develop appropriate critical and theoretical approaches to the chosen practices.
• To develop appropriate self-reflective analytical methods.
• To develop presentation skills.
• To develop group-work project skills as appropriate
• To be able to reflect on individual work within a collaborative context as appropriate

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. To develop in-depth knowledge of key literature of adaptation studies and translation studies in relation to theatre and performance.
2. To develop in-depth knowledge of, and apply a range of established critical and theoretical ideas relating to the re-writing of texts in a theatrical context
3. To demonstrate an advanced ability to analyse and evaluate the use and effect of adaptive and translational strategies and techniques
4. To demonstrate an advanced conceptual and practical understanding of historical forms and functions of stage adaptation and translation
5. To demonstrate the ability to develop original and critical strategies of adaptation and translation for a specific theatrical context

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including seminars, practical writing workshops and self-directed exercises.

Assessment Information

Formative assessment: workshop presentation of work-in-progress ILOs 2, 3, 5

Summative assessment: 4000 word critically annotated script (2500 word script; 1500 word annotation) The annotation should identify and elucidate your translational and/or adaptational choices, offering insight into your decision-making process. ILOS 1-5

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. THTR30007).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.