Apocalyptic Shakespeare: Essays on Visions of Chaos and Revelation in Recent Film Adaptations
Edited by Melissa Croteau and Carolyn Jess-Cooke
ISBN 978-0-7864-3392-6
9 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
244pp. softcover 2009
Price: $39.95
Description
This collection of essays examines the ways in which recent Shakespeare films portray anxieties about an impending global wasteland, technological alienation, spiritual destruction, and the effects of globalization. Films covered include Titus, William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Almereyda’s Hamlet, Revengers Tragedy, Twelfth Night, The Passion of the Christ, Radford’s The Merchant of Venice, The Lion King, and Godard’s King Lear, among others that directly adapt or reference Shakespeare. Essays chart the apocalyptic mise-en-scènes, disorienting imagery, and topsy-turvy plots of these films, using apocalypse as a theoretical and thematic lens.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: Beginning at the Ends
MELISSA CROTEAU 1
1. The “great doom’s image”: Apocalyptic Trajectories in Contemporary Shakespearean Filmmaking
RAMONA WRAY 29
2. Apocalyptic Paternalism, Family Values, and the War of the Cinemas; or, How Shakespeare Became Posthuman
COURTNEY LEHMANN 47
3. Liberty’s Taken, or How “captive women may be cleansed and used”: Julie Taymor’s Titus and 9/11
KIM FEDDERSON and J. MICHAEL RICHARDSON 70
4. Post-Apocalyptic Spaces in Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
RICHARD VELA 90
5. Celluloid Revelations: Millennial Culture and Dialogic
“Pastiche” in Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000)
MELISSA CROTEAU 110
6. The Revenger’s Tragedy in 2002: Alex Cox’s Punk Apocalypse
GRETCHEN E. MINTON 132
7. The Plague in Filmed Versions of Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night
CARL JAMES GRINDLEY 148
8. The Politics of Apocalypse: Interrogating Conversion in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice
ADRIAN STREETE 166
9. Disney’s “War Efforts”: The Lion King and Education for Death; or, Shakespeare Made Easy for Your Apocalyptic Convenience
ALFREDO MICHEL MODENESSI 181
10. Four Funerals and a Bedding: Freud and the Post-Apocalyptic Apocalypse of Jean-Luc Godard’s King Lear
ANTHONY R. GUNERATNE 197
11. “The Promised End” of Cinema: Portraits of Apocalypse in Post-Millennial Shakespearean Film
CAROLYN JESS-COOKE 216
About the Contributors 229
Index 231
Melissa Croteau is an associate professor of literature and film studies at California Baptist University. Carolyn Jess-Cooke is a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Northumbria. She lives in Tyne and Wear, England.
Shakespeare as Children’s Literature: Edwardian Retellings in Words and Pictures
Velma Bourgeois Richmond
ISBN 978-0-7864-3781-8
40 photos, tables, notes, bibliography, index
371pp. softcover 2008
Price: $35.00
Description
Although William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, he traditionally receives little notice in studies of children’s literature. However, there is a fascinating relationship between Shakespeare and children’s interests, and the Bard’s works have been successfully adapted for children’s use over several centuries.
This book continues and parallels the author’s previous study, Chaucer as Children’s Literature, as part of a greater endeavor to evaluate the significance of traditional literature retold as children’s literature in modern English studies. It examines the ways in which William Shakespeare’s stories have been adapted for children, particularly in Mary and Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, which was almost immediately recognized as a classic of children’s literature when it was first published in 1807. The author describes the significance of the Lamb’s Tales as the pre-eminent children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s literature, focusing particularly on the lavishly illustrated Edwardian editions which used pictures to convey Shakespeare’s stories for children.
Other topics include Victorian alternatives to the Lambs’ stories, including anthologies from David Murray Smith, Abby Sage Richardson, and Mary Seymour; the lavish illustrations of Shakespeare’s stories found in antique English textbooks; Shakespeare in nursery books, including sophisticated collections from Mary Macleod, Thomas Carter, Alice S. Hoffman, and other noted authors; and Shakespeare in multi-volume American collections, including The Children’s Hour, Journeys through Bookland, and The Junior Classics.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1. Contexts for Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare 7
2. The Tradition of Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare 25
3. Lamb’s Tales Continued: Completion, Addition, and Selection 71
4. Victorian Alternatives 110
5. Edwardian Elegance and Exuberance: Retellings Large and Small 155
6. Shakespeare in Schoolbooks 230
7. Home Libraries, Literary Histories, and Pedagogical Advice 273
Epilogue 321
Tables 325
Chapter Notes 333
Selected Bibliography 345
Index 351
About the Author
Velma Bourgeois Richmond is professor emerita at Holy Names College, Oakland, California. She lives in Berkeley, California.
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