Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona and its adaptations (The One Series)
- Natalia Reyes
- Department of English, School of Arts & Sciences
-
Curricular Support Grant
Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona and its adaptations (The One Series) takes up Ramona, one of the most important American novels of the 19th century, and its adaptations for film, stage, and television to inquire into how its mythical romance became incorporated into the imagined history of the Southwest and how adaptation transforms the myth over time. What are the sociopolitical stakes of film adaptations of Ramona in the first half of the 20th century, and how might these stakes transform by the early 2000s, when Ramona is adapted for television? Students will investigate the complex relationship between archives, preservation, and historical memory through the lens of Digital Humanities. In seeking to access the adaptations of Ramona and investigating how the sociopolitical context of each adaptation informs its capacity for reinforcing or challenging the original “mission myth,” the course will invite students to disseminate their research on adaptation and myth-making via multimedia platforms.