Incorporating the Literary Re-makes of the Classics into Today’s Literature Classroom: Some Experiential Reflections
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Date
2016-10-19
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Abstract
In his Plagiat et créativité (treize enquêtes sur l’auteur et son autre) (2008), Jean-Louis Corneille traces creativity and plagiarism in several French authors who have incorporated slices of literary masterpieces into their creative works, and wonders whether it is possible to draw a clear line in literature between creativity and plagiarism and, if so, whether the literary enterprise is not missing out on the burst of creative energy that re-makes bring to other artistic realms like films and music. As an extension to Corneille’s thesis, my presentation discusses the efforts of a new and relatively obscure Spanish publishing house, Editores 451, to bring the classics to a new generation of readers through re-makes that it had commissioned a group of young Spanish writers to make of such Spanish classics as El Mío Cid, Lazarillo de Tormes, Bécquer’s Leyendas as well as of other European and American writers. In my presentation, I will address five fundamental questions, namely: a) What do we understand by a classic literary work, b) How has its meaning changed in and through time, c) What value system underpins the changes, d) In what ways is literary value added, and e) as teachers of language, how can we harness the potentialities of the literary re-makes to gain a new readership for the classics in the college literature classroom. Finally, I will suggest two novel ideas that I believe are worthy of our exploration for their potential benefits to both postgraduate students and faculty.
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Seminar
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literary masterpieces, creative energy, films and music, European and American writers