ENG273

This course explores a variety of interpretations and appropriations of Shakespearean tragedies, comedies, romances spanning the past century. In the context of modern cinematic adaptation, Shakespearean plays transform beyond themselves, often distorted or reworked to represent anachronistic cultural concerns. Students analyze linguistic, social, and historical contexts in the Shakespearean original and then comparatively considers these readings against their modern remakings: Are there limits to adaptation? What relates the original to the later work? How do we assess the evolving discourse of film reception studies? The focus shifts between comedy and tragedy, tragedy and romance, often redefining set assumptions about these thematic categories in the Shakespearean context. Adaptations include Japanese epic cinema, Hollywood screwball comedies, prison performance, militaristic stagings, avant-garde experimental film, and formulaic romantic comedies.