Literature and culture today: Intertextuality: re-writing and adapting Hamlet

The seminar investigates the processes involved in the circulation of texts and themes in culture, focusing on intertextuality, adaptation, parody and re-writing.

Allen, Graham. 2000. Intertextuality. London: Routledge.

Dentith, Simon. 2000. Parody. London, NY: Routledge.

Drakakis, John (ed.). 1985. Alternative Shakespeares. London: Routledge.

Kristeva, Julia. 1984. Revolution in Poetic Language. New York: Columbia University Press.

Novy, Marianne (ed.). 2000. Transforming Shakespeare: Contemporary Women’s Re-Visions in Literature and Performance. NY: Palgrave.

Peterson, Kaara. 1998. Framing Ophelia: Representation and the pictorial tradition. Mosaic : a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. Winnipeg: Sep 1998.Vol. 31, Iss. 3.

Sanders, Julie. 2006. Adaptation and Appropriation. London: Routledge.

Showalter, Elaine. 1987. The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture. London: Virago.

The seminar investigates the processes involved in the circulation of texts and themes in culture, focusing on intertextuality, adaptation, parody and re-writing.

These processes will be examined taking as an example adaptations and new versions of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The texts and films considered will include the plays by Tom Stoppard, feminist revisions of Shakespearean plays, postcolonial productions of Hamlet, psychoanalytic interpretations of Hamlet and iconographic representations of Ophelia.

The course will be taught by ONLINE/REMOTE methods (a combination of synchronous and asynchronous methods), according to the following schedule:

1. Introduction (Online Teams)

2. Intertextualities (Online Teams)

3. Intertextualities – exercises (Moodle assignments)

4. Adaptation/Appropriation (Online Teams)

5. Parody (Online Teams)

6. Post-colonial and multicultural Shakespeares (Online Teams)

7. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (the original?) (Moodle – shared document)

8. Hamlet 2000 (Michael Almereyda) (Online Teams)

9. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard (film adaptation); 15 minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard (Online Teams)

10-11. Ophelia – madness, iconography, the Internet, parody (2 meetings: theory + mini-presentations) (Online Teams)

12. Ophelia by Bryony Lavery, Pushing the Prince into Denmark by Deborah Levy - feminist revisions (Online Teams)

13. Psychoanalytic interpretations (Moodle assignments)

14-15. Presentations of the theatre/film/music/art/video projects based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet (in groups) (students’ presentations posted on the Moodle platform) + feedback

The seminar is accompanied by a Moodle course in which students will find the excerpts from the theoretical and literary texts for reading, examples, as well as discussion questions (to be used when preparing for the synchronous online meetings and Moodle assignments).

Assessment methods:

Project presentation (Moodle) – W1, U1, U2, U3, U4, K1

Mini-presentation (representations of Ophelia) (MS Teams) – W1, U2, U3, U4, K1

Participation in discussion (MS Teams, Moodle assignments and shared documents) – W1, U1, U2, U3, U4, K1

Components of the final mark:

Project presentation and description (Moodle) (50%)

Mini-presentation (Ophelia) (MS Teams) (20%)

Regular attendance, participation in discussion, completion of assignments (MS Teams and Moodle) (30%)

Click on "Labolatory, 30 hours → more information"/ "Laboratorium, 30 godzin → więcej informacji" for additional details about the 2020/2021 cycle.