Shakespearean Films

by Donaldson

An interpretation of film adaptations of Shakespeare. Drawing on traditional literary analysis, psychoanalysis, and current film theory about gender and subjectivity, the author combines close readings of seven films with historical and biographical studies of the directors who made them. The book is primarily concerned with the process of appropriation by which the conventions and practices of the the Elizabethan stage are refashioned in the contemporary medium of film, and by which the work of individual film artists is nourished and challenged by the task of adapting Shakespeare. It is meant to point some new directions for the rapidly developing field of Shakespearean film studies and to exemplify some of the ways in which students and teachers of film and literature can make best use of the possibilities for the study of Shakespeare created by the video cassette recorder and by newer technologies such as the laser disc.

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1990