الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The present thesis aims to study instances of local and global Shakespearean theatrical adaptations. It explores three adaptations: Edward Bond’s Lear (1972), charles Marowitz’s The Shrew (1978), and Sulayman El-Bassam’s cross-cultural production The Al-Hamlet Summit (2002). Motives behind the adapters’ decision to revisit particular Shakespearean texts are investigated. That is, the thesis pursues a deeper understanding of “why” adapters recycle Shakespeare. It, moreover, focuses on the subversive strategies deployed by the three adapters to reach their goals. The studied adaptations deconstruct a myriad of binary oppositions that are at the heart of Western thought. It reveals how these binarisms have been exploited to establish the most aggressive and persistent hierarchies in the history of humanity; and how they have been utilized for a systematic construction of reality. This, in turn, has allowed for a series of oppressions and exploitation of nature, women and other races. Therefore, this thesis relies on the deconstructionist approach to examine strategies of subversion in the three textual appropriations of Shakespeare under examination. It also showcases how deconstruction intersects with other critical approaches to achieve the major objective of shaking the Bard and the inherent ideologies the canon has for long reinforced. |