ENGL 54.01 Shakespeare Adaptations

What happens when movie writers and directors adapt Shakespeare’s plays for the screen? How does an audience’s awareness of a literary precedent influence reception? What kinds of adaptations do we value and what role does their faithfulness to originals play? This course will look at twelve adaptations of major plays that most consider somewhat radical (e.g. Chicken Rice War; Omkara, Ran, Forbidden Planet, Scotland, P.A.) exploring the conceptual and cinematic strengths of the adaptations, as well as what their attempts to preserve or recast elements of Shakespeare’s plays reveals about the energies of the originals. Each film should thus prove a site of discussion in its own right, as well as an interpretive text that both critiques and argues the merits of the source text. Students can expect to read seven plays and see at least two adaptations of each, writing short responses to each play and film on canvas. Course Group IV

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

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Department-Specific Course Categories

Course Group IV