Screening Gender in Shakespeare's Comedies

Film and Television Adaptations in the Twenty-First Century

Magdalena Cieślak

When adapting Shakespeare's comedies, cinema and television have to address the differences and incompatibilities between early modern gender constructs and contemporary cultural, social, and political contexts. Screening Gender in Shakespeare’s Comedies: Film and Television Adaptations in the Twenty-First Century analyzes methods employed by cinema and television in approaching those aspects of Shakespeare's comedies, indicating a range of ways in which adaptations made in the twenty-first century approach the problems of cultural and social normativity, gender politics, stereotypes of femininity and masculinity, the dynamic of power relations between men and women, and social roles of men and women. This book discusses both mainstream cinematic productions, such as Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice or Julie Taymor's The Tempest, and more low-key adaptations, such as Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It and Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, as well as the three comedies of BBC ShakespeaRe-Told miniseries: Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This book examines how the analyzed films deal with elements of Shakespeare's comedies that appear subversive, challenging, or offensive to today's culture, and how they interpret or update gender issues to reconcile Shakespeare with contemporary cultural norms. By exploring tensions and negotiations between early modern and present-day gender politics, the book defines the prevailing attitudes of recent adaptations in relation to those issues, and identifies the most popular strategies of accommodating early modern constructs for contemporary audiences.

Lexington Books

Pages: 288 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-6374-1 • Hardback • April 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-6376-5 • Paperback • July 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-6375-8 • eBook • April 2019 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Series: Remakes, Reboots, and Adaptations

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Social Science / Popular Culture, Literary Criticism / Humor, Social Science / Gender Studies, Social Science / Media Studies

Screening Gender in Shakespeare's Comedies

Film and Television Adaptations in the Twenty-First Century

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

When adapting Shakespeare's comedies, cinema and television have to address the differences and incompatibilities between early modern gender constructs and contemporary cultural, social, and political contexts. Screening Gender in Shakespeare’s Comedies: Film and Television Adaptations in the Twenty-First Century analyzes methods employed by cinema and television in approaching those aspects of Shakespeare's comedies, indicating a range of ways in which adaptations made in the twenty-first century approach the problems of cultural and social normativity, gender politics, stereotypes of femininity and masculinity, the dynamic of power relations between men and women, and social roles of men and women. This book discusses both mainstream cinematic productions, such as Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice or Julie Taymor's The Tempest, and more low-key adaptations, such as Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It and Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, as well as the three comedies of BBC ShakespeaRe-Told miniseries: Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This book examines how the analyzed films deal with elements of Shakespeare's comedies that appear subversive, challenging, or offensive to today's culture, and how they interpret or update gender issues to reconcile Shakespeare with contemporary cultural norms. By exploring tensions and negotiations between early modern and present-day gender politics, the book defines the prevailing attitudes of recent adaptations in relation to those issues, and identifies the most popular strategies of accommodating early modern constructs for contemporary audiences.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 288 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-6374-1 • Hardback • April 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-6376-5 • Paperback • July 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-6375-8 • eBook • April 2019 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Series: Remakes, Reboots, and Adaptations

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Social Science / Popular Culture, Literary Criticism / Humor, Social Science / Gender Studies, Social Science / Media Studies

Author

Magdalena Cieślak is assistant professor of English at the University of Łódź.

Table of Contents

Part I: Doing It “Straight”

Chapter 1—Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice

Chapter 2—Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It

Chapter 3—Julie Taymor’s The Tempest

Chapter 4—Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing

Part II: BBC’s ShakespeaRe-Told—Retelling Shakespeare for Political Correctness

Chapter 5—BBC’s ShakespeaRe-Told Much Ado About Nothing, dir. Brian Percival

Chapter 6—BBC’s ShakespeaRe-Told The Taming of the Shrew, dir. David Richards

Chapter 7— BBC’s ShakespeaRe-Told A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dir. Ed Fraiman

Conclusion: Girl Power or Will Power?

Epilogue: Bridget Jones’s Baby

Reviews

The field of academic research on Shakespeare and screen adaptations has been rapidly expanding over the past decades, and Cieślak’s interdisciplinary study provides a welcome critical addition. . . In a highly topical book, also considering the ongoing #MeToo debate, the author explores the tensions and negotiations between early modern attitudes towards gender and the way twenty-first century adaptations relate to those issues in terms of current gender politics. . . . With all the insightful analysis in her timely book, Cieślak has hopefully also provided an impetus for further research in this highly topical field.

— Sederi Yearbook

Magdalena Cieslak’s Screening Gender offers insightful readings of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies and their representation in twenty-first-century film. In a comprehensive survey, she identifies the early modern constructions of gender, marriage, and female sexuality embedded in Shakespeare’s texts and illuminates the ways they are replicated and sometimes interrogated in cinematic adaptations.
— Virginia Mason Vaughan, Clark University