Shakespeare in Film
January
20-22, 2000
The recent success of John Madden's Shakespeare
in Love (1998) and Shekhar KapurÕs Elizabeth (1998), as well as the
continued popularity of Kenneth Branagh's adaptations (from his Henry
V in 1989, to his full-text, four-hour Hamlet of 1996) has generated
enormous interest in the BardÕs life, work, and era among a mass audience
of moviegoers. Outside of the film industry itself, Shakespeare's recent
explosion onto the screen has prompted film scholars, Shakespeareans,
and cultural historians alike to ask fundamental questions about the
filmic adaptation of Shakespeare and of the literary text more generally.
Though hardly the product of one culture or generation alone, what can
we make of this phenomenon? What can the filmic representation of ShakespeareÕs
life and work teach us about constructions of cultural value, practices
of cultural translation, and the media through which we represent and
make sense of the past?
From the earliest adaptations to film, Bardolators
and literary purists have objected to the perversion of ShakespeareÕs
original text and intent. Of course, every production of a Shakespeare
play, no matter how "authentically" conceived, is an act of mediation.
Rather than simply dismiss the issue of artistic purism, however, we
might ask what valid questions the debate continues to raise. At a general
level, the discussion asks us to consider what transformations occur
in the shift from text (or stage) to screen, and what potential losses
and gains are incurred through this translation of media. Beyond this
particular debate, however, the filmic adaptation of Shakespeare raises
other equally pressing questions: What are the ideological or political
ends to which Shakespeare's work has been and continues to be put? What
is the significance of our own mass-cultural interest in this most visible
of cultural icons? And what can the filmic use of ShakespeareÑhis work,
life, and eraÑtell us about the way we use the film medium to re-present
the past?
Calling on both film scholars and literary historians,
our seminar will investigate film's ongoing fascination with the man,
the work, and the era. In addition to asking fundamental questions about
film adaptation generally, our seminar will consider case studies from
a number of cultural and historical contexts. Topics to be discussed
may include the interaction between the early modern and the post-modern
in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet (1996), the recent portrayals of
the Elizabethan era and of Queen Elizabeth herself, and the adaptations
of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, including his Throne of Blood (1965)
and Ran (1985).
Speakers will include David Bevington (English
and Comparative Literature), Thomas R. Gunning (Art History and the
Committee on Cinema and Media Studies), David Levin (Germanic Studies),
and Janel Mueller (Dean of the Humanities, English).
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University of Chicago