Skip to Content

COLT 232 - Literature and Film

CRN: 31599

Instructor: Kenneth Calhoon

Term: Spring 2018

American writer Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995), famous for her psychological thrillers, produced twenty-two novels, a great many of which were adapted for the cinema at least once. The fact that her debut novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock within a year of its publication would suggest a certain suitability of her writing for the screen. This course will examine a selection of Highsmith’s novels with an eye to the obstacles they pose to cinematic translation and to the ways in which filmmakers have “adapted” in order to bring this translation about. Directors to be discussed include René Clément (Purple Noon), Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley), Wim Wenders (The American Friend), Claude Chabrol (The Cry of the Owl) and Hossein Amini (The Two Faces of January).

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

  • Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
  • Multicultural Courses: International Cultures (IC)