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New Wave Shakespeare on Screen

ISBN: 978-0-745-63393-0

January 2007

Polity

224 pages

Description
The past fifteen years have witnessed a diverse group of experiments in ‘staging’ Shakespeare on film. New Wave Shakespeare on Screen introduces and applies the new analytic techniques and language that are required to make sense of this new wave.

Drawing on developments in Shakespeare studies, performance studies, and media studies, the book integrates text-based and screen-based approaches in ways that will be accessible to teachers and students, as well as scholars. The study maps a critical vocabulary for interpreting Shakespeare film; addresses script-to-screen questions about authority and performativity; outlines varied approaches to adaptation such as revival, recycling, allusion, and sampling; parses sound as well as visual effects; and explores the cross-pollination between film and other media, from ancient to cutting-edge. New Wave Shakespeare on Screen emphasizes how rich the payoffs can be when Shakespeareans turn their attention to film adaptations as texts: aesthetically complex, historically situated, and as demanding in their own right as the playtexts they renovate.

Works discussed include pop culture films like Billy Morrisette’s Scotland, PA; televised updatings like the ITV Othello; and art-house films such as Julie Taymor’s Titus, Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard, Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet, and Kristian Levering’s The King is Alive. These films reframe the playtexts according to a variety of extra-Shakespearean interests, inviting viewers back to them in fresh ways.

About the Author
Thomas Cartelli is Professor of English and NEH Professor of Humanities, Muhlenberg College.

Katherine Rowe is Professor of English at Bryn Mawr.

Features

  • An innovative introductory textbook to adaptations of Shakespeare on screen, written by two highly experienced and well respected US academics.
  • Fills a gap in the market by concentrating mainly on the ‘new wave’ of Shakespeare adaptations – such as those by Baz Luhrmann, Peter Greenaway – which are widely taught but have been under-studied in textbooks to date.
  • Introduces students to the new vocabulary – taken from film theory and digital media studies – needed to engage with these ground breaking adaptations.
  • Traces the relationship of the new wave of adaptations to the more classic Shakespeare films of Branagh and co.
  • A highly trendy, cutting edge book which is very adoptable.