Description
Book SynopsisThis Concise Companion presents a multidisciplinary range of approaches to a vast multimedia subject, Shakespeare on screen. * Draws on the latest thinking in cultural studies, communications, and comparative media, in dialogue with literary, theatrical and filmic approaches.
Trade Review"With this collection, Henderson...and her fellow contributors rocket Shakespearian studies into the 21st Century...the collection offers a variety of ways to study Shakespearian screen adaptations, thus providing an exciting new avenue of critical study for those looking to break free of the more staid critical analysis of old. Highly recommended"
Choice
“This superb collection of essays takes the study of Shakespeare on film to a whole new level, telling us where the discipline has reached and where we can go from here. From problems of film-acting and gender to cross-culturalism and pixelvision, the book covers an enormous range of approaches as it considers the full gamut of Shakespeare films (old and new; good, bad and indifferent). It may be a ‘Concise Companion’ but there is nothing skimped here; instead, the collection is as rich and provocative as one could imagine and as exhilarating as the films themselves.” Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame
“The essays are superbly interwoven with the overall structure of the volume. The work presented in this volume is really impressive. It covers every necessary aspect needed to understand the discipline and completes what has been published so far opening new avenues for research. All that rethinking done in the past years has been appropriately summarized and expanded in this magnificent volume. It presents enough material to “keep making sense of our subject, and await the next viewing”. What more could one ask for? The careful reading of the essays included in this companion will elicit from us the wish to “continue to discern something meaningful”.”
Jorge Luis Bueno Alonso, University of Vigo, Sederi
"A serious and penetrating series of articles that supply dimensions we may not have been aware of and that enhance our understanding of the different Shakespeares we see on the screen … All libraries connected with cultural and media studies should have this book on their shelves."
Reference Reviews
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Notes on Contributors viii
Bibliographical Note xi
Chronology xii
Introduction: Through a Camera, Darkly 1
Diana E. Henderson
1 Authorship: Getting Back to Shakespeare: Whose Film is it Anyway? 8
Elsie Walker
2 Cinema Studies: “Thou Dost Usurp Authority”: Beerbohm Tree, Reinhardt, Olivier, Welles, and the
Politics of Adapting Shakespeare 31
Anthony R. Guneratne
3 Theatricality: Stage, Screen, and Nation: Hamlet and the Space of History 54
Robert Shaughnessy
4 The Artistic Process: Learning from Campbell Scott’s Hamlet 77
Diana E. Henderson
5 Cinematic Performance: Spectacular Bodies: Acting ƒyƒnCinema ƒyƒnShakespeare 96
Barbara Hodgdon
6 Gender Studies: Shakespeare, Sex, and Violence: Negotiating Masculinities in Branagh’s Henry V
and Taymor’s Titus 112
Pascale Aebischer
7 Globalization: Figuring the Global/Historical in Filmic Shakespearean Tragedy 133
Mark Thornton Burnett
8 Cross-Cultural Interpretation: Reading Kurosawa Reading Shakespeare 155
Anthony Dawson
9 Popular Culture: Will of the People: Recent Shakespeare Film Parody and the Politics of Popularization 176
Douglas Lanier
10 Television Studies: Brushing Up Shakespeare: Relevance and Televisual Form 197
Roberta E. Pearson and William Uricchio
11 Remediation: Hamlet among the Pixelvisionaries: Video Art, Authenticity, and “Wisdom” in Almereyda’s
Hamlet 216
Peter S. Donaldson
Afterword: Unending Revels: Visual Pleasure and Compulsory Shakespeare 238
Kathleen McLuskie
Select Bibliography 250
Index 253
