Early Exposure to Literary Adaptation: Disney, Dr. Seuss and Beyond

Pictured above from left to right are Patrick Caoile ’19, Gabriella Robles ’18 and Kathleen Monahan, Ph.D.

On Thursday, March 23, the English department hosted its annual conference, which this year considered “Adaptations and Influences: Literature’s Relationship with Other Disciplines.” Dr. Scott Stoddart, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, discussed two novels adapted to film in “History Repeats Itself: The Femmes Fatales of Laura and Gone Girl”; Dr. Rachel Wifall of the English Department considered the recent trend of joining “high art” with pop culture in “Expanding the Canon: Austen and Shakespeare and Zombies”; filmmakers and Saint Peter’s alumni Marylou and Jerome Bongiorno ’84 discussed their film The Black Monk: What Do You Seek?, which was inspired by a short story by Anton Chekhov; student presenters discussed the intersectionality of literature with film, television, internet series, comic strips and video games.