Overview

Shakespeare’s plays have long been open to reimagining and reinterpretation, from John Fletcher’s riposte to The Taming of the Shrew in 1611 to present day spin-offs in a whole range of media, including YouTube videos and Manga comics. This book offers a clear route map through the world of adaptation, selecting examples from film, drama, prose fiction, ballet, the visual arts and poetry, and exploring their respective political and cultural interactions with Shakespeare's plays. 36 specific case studies are discussed, three for each of the 12 plays covered, offering additional guidance for readers new to this important area of Shakespeare studies. The introduction signals key adaptation issues that are subsequently explored through the chapters on individual plays, including Shakespeare’s own adaptive art and its Renaissance context, production and performance as adaptation, and generic expectation and transmedial practice. Organized chronologically, the chapters cover the most commonly studied plays, allowing readers to dip in to read about specific plays or trace how technological developments have fundamentally changed ways in which Shakespeare is experienced. With examples encompassing British, North American, South and East Asian, European and Middle Eastern adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, the volume offers readers a wealth of insights drawn from different ages, territories and media.

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9781350068636

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Reviews

Offering readers a window into the afterlives of Shakespeare's plays across a stunning range of time, culture, and media, Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration to YouTube is an indispensable guide to the cultural and critical contexts that define our understanding of the Bard past, present, and future. -- Courtney Lehmann, University of the Pacific, USA

Offering readers a window into the afterlives of Shakespeare's plays across a stunning range of time, culture, and media, Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration to YouTube is an indispensable guide to the cultural and critical contexts that define our understanding of the Bard past, present, and future. * Courtney Lehmann, University of the Pacific, USA *

Entertaining and illuminating ... This volume is of great value and provides an excellent introduction to Shakespeare in an adaptation that seems especially suited to those studying at the undergraduate level, offering not just an entry point into the plays discussed but many suggestions for further reading and research. * Cahiers Elisabethains * [Combines] a broad thematic scope with a thorough and up-to-date scholarly background, presented in a reader-friendly style that makes the book accessible not only for the initiate, but also for students and even the educated general reader ... [Provides] the reader with refreshing insights into each play's afterlife, often highlighting unexpected thematic connections between works not commonly discussed together. * Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance * Offering readers a window into the afterlives of Shakespeare's plays across a stunning range of time, culture, and media, Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration to YouTube is an indispensable guide to the cultural and critical contexts that define our understanding of the Bard past, present, and future. * Courtney Lehmann, University of the Pacific, USA *

Author Information

Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens have both taught undergraduate Shakespeare courses. They are the co-authors of Essential Shakespeare: The Arden Guide to Text and Interpretation (2013) and Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama: Text and Performance (2016).

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