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5 - The Comedies

from Part II - Genres and Plays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2020

Russell Jackson
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

Concentrating on adaptations of As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night, this chapter argues that Shakespeare’s comedies on screen constitute a significant and cross-fertilizing body of work. Scriptwriters have pursued imaginative routes through the syntax of the comedies, and there has been considerable experiment in terms of updating Shakespeare’s language. Comedy is the genre where constructions of gender/sexuality are often expressed with filmmakers recognizing in Shakespeare’s comedies opportunities to explore agency, voice and embodiment. The comedies on screen anticipate many of the themes energizing recent criticism, and in this there is a pronounced self-consciousness. Harking back to earlier experiments, the most recent Shakespearean comedies showcase their own artifice along with strategies of revision dependent on a dense intertextuality.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • The Comedies
  • Edited by Russell Jackson, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Screen
  • Online publication: 11 December 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108367479.007
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  • The Comedies
  • Edited by Russell Jackson, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Screen
  • Online publication: 11 December 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108367479.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Comedies
  • Edited by Russell Jackson, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Screen
  • Online publication: 11 December 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108367479.007
Available formats
×