FYS 101-13: Shakespeare At The Movies
Lecture: TuTh 2:30 – 3:45 p.m. | Performing Arts & Humanities Building 201
Eve Munson
An Indian filmmaker remakes Macbeth as a Mumbai underworld police thriller. A Chinese director re-imagines Hamlet as a martial arts romance. At a Kentucky maximum security prison, inmates put on a production of The Tempest. In a literary web series, Beatrice and Benedick are YouTube vloggers who share their private thoughts on separate channels. Shakespeare’s plays can now be found re-created on film, TV, interactive games, graphic novels, and web series. What can these diverse adaptations tell us about the cultures that produce them and the plays that inspire them? How is modern Shakespeare presented to the masses in terms of sexuality, gender, race, violence, and nationalism? Why do contemporary artists feel such a recurring need to parrot and parody Shakespeare, and how much of this activity is about Shakespeare at all? We will also read the “original” Shakespeare texts to which the re-writers respond. Students will have opportunities to experiment individually and in small groups with crafting their own adaptations.
*meets Arts and Humanities (AH) requirements
Have you thought of taking a First-Year Seminar?
Each of the courses in the First-Year Seminar (FYS) program is unique in its own way, but what is shared is the:
- small cohort experience. You, along with your faculty member and class participants, study a topic in a dynamic, small-group environment.
- focus on learning by sharing knowledge and experience through writing, discussions, and presentations…key skills your faculty and employers require.
- connection with faculty that can only happen in smaller classroom settings. They will get to know you well and can recommend you for all kinds of opportunities.
