Literature on screen: teaching adaptations in a multimodal course

ABSTRACT

Literature on Screen (http://kirjandusekraanil.ee/) is an online learning platform focused on film adaptation of literary texts. The paper, that starts with an overview of film education in Estonia, provides a theoretical framework for discussing and analysing adaptations in class with the help of multimodal and digital media. The methodology stems from the tradition of the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School, which implies a holistic approach to meaning-generating processes in human culture. Literary adaptations are regarded as invariants of the same story existing in different media and discourses. The paper describes the process of the development and testing of the platform in Estonian- and Russian-speaking schools in Estonia. The results of the testing allow us to compare the patterns of media consumption and production in different classrooms and open up opportunities for promoting cultural diversity through adaptation studies. Literature on Screen constitutes a part of Education on Screen, a project developed by the Transmedia Research Group at the University of Tartu. The project’s goal is to develop open-access online materials to support the teaching of humanities-related subjects in secondary schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Multimodality
• cultural education
• adaptation
• digital learning
• semiotics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Literature on Screen was developed and tested by the authors of this paper; the team also included professor Peeter Torop and PhD candidate Liina Sieberk.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article has been supported by the grant HHVFIRP12 of the University of Tartu; Tartu Ülikool.

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Milyakina

Alexandra Milyakina ([email protected]) is a PhD student at the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu. Her research interests include Semiotics of Literature, Digital Pedagogy and Intersemiotic Translation.

Maarja Ojamaa

Maarja Ojamaa ([email protected]), PhD, is a Researcher at the Department of Semiotics (University of Tartu) and at the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (Tallinn University). Her research interests include Transmedia, Cultural Autocommunication and Cultural Memory.

Tatjana Pilipovec

Tatjana Pilipovec ([email protected]) is a PhD student at the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu. Her research interests include Participatory Culture and Semiotics of Literature.

Merit Rickberg

Merit Rickberg ([email protected]) is a PhD student in the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu. Her research interests include Semiotics of History, Ideology and Public History, National Conflicts and Identity.