Avoiding ‘Compare and Contrast’: Applied Theory as a Way to Circumvent the ‘Fidelity Issue’

Abstract

Studying adaptation in France has become quite common. High school teachers use it regularly in class, and most educators acknowledge that in the early twenty-first century, literature and culture in general need to be approached through various platforms and media if we want to communicate them to new generations of students who are constantly connected to each other and to the world through screens and virtual reality. This evolution, in universities as in secondary education, is illustrated by the inclusion of adaptation within the recruiting system for future teachers. Students who want to become teachers in France need to take a concours (a competitive exam which selects applicants for a restricted number of positions every year), and write several papers on set works and topics that change each year. Ever since 1998, the syllabus for the concours to become an English teacher has followed the example previously set by the Spanish and Latin exams, so as to include — in addition to the traditional plays, novels, and historical periods — a literary work and its film adaptation. Since future teachers are supposedly trained in adaptation studies when preparing their exam, they should in turn be more able to teach diverse forms of adaptation to students and teach literature through media convergence.