Cultural Appropriation Shakespeare

Catalog description

This course focuses on how writers and filmmakers have appropriated or rewritten Shakespearean plays to serve their own cultural or political interests. The course begins with a comparison of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with West Side Story. Aime Cesaire's The Tempest, Edward Braithwaite's poem "Caliban", and Elizabeth Nunez' Prospero's Daughter will be read against Shakespeare's The Tempest; Tayeb Salih's Seasons of Migration to the North and Tjanet Sears' Harlem Duet will be read with Othello; and Jane Smiley's Thousand Acres will be studied in relation to Shakespeare's King Lear. Various film adaptations will also be viewed. Students write papers on additional appropriations or create their own appropriation.