• What is lost and what is gained in the passage from page to screen?
• How can literary theory and film theory enable us to ‘read’ screen adaptations?
• How are screen adaptations affected by modes of production and reception?
• What effect will new technologies have on writing and reading literature?

This conference provides an opportunity to redress the balance in status between the ‘film of the book’ and the ‘classic serial’ and their literary source materials. It also examines some of the ways in which new technologies are creating exciting new literary forms. We move beyond the library to explore the contested relationships between the printed page and film, television and computer screens. Major issues to be addressed include the aesthetics of adaptation and the potential of hypertext as a literary medium. Topics covered include:

• how to read a film
• using film to illuminate the study of literature
• the theory and practice of literary adaptation
• case study: a recent film adaptation
• hypertext and hyperfiction.

Participants are invited to submit proposals for short (20-minute) presentations on related topics, which may include the following:

• adaptations of different literary genres
• intertextual ‘dialogues’ between literature and film (e.g. Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now)
• transcultural adaptations (e.g. Macbeth and Throne of Blood)
• Shakespeare on film
• film versus television as media for adaptation
• hypertext or classroom experiences with hyperfiction.

The eighteenth Oxford Conference on the teaching of literature is managed by British Council Seminars on behalf of Film and Literature Department.

Participant profile
The conference is designed primarily to meet the professional needs of teachers of literature and/or film at university and upper secondary levels. It is also of interest to curriculum designers, textbook writers, head teachers and other educational managers concerned with the planning and delivery of literature syllabuses. Participants may already be involved with using film as an integral component of their teaching, or may simply be interested in broadening the pedagogical scope of their approaches.