Not Not Shakespeare

Catalog description

William Shakespeare's influence on popular culture is profound. A great plagiarist himself, his plots have been stolen, tortured, and re-animated throughout history, especially on film. There are lots of movie adaptations of Shakespeare (997 according to IMDB), but this class will look at films that--instead of being adaptations--are rip-off, parodies, or send-ups of Shakespeare, movies that take Shakespeare's plots and characters in completely new and unexpected directions, in order to examine Shakespeare's place in popular culture not simply as the author of museum pieces, but as a playwright whose stories are endlessly malleable and still poignant today. Along the way we shall look at points where Shakespeare intersects with different genres and periods of film history, giving us a chance to study and discuss more than just instances of filmic Bardolotry.. Some of the movies we will look at include the 1957 Samurai classic "Throne of Blood" (Macbeth), the 1958 science fiction movie "Forbidden Planet" (The Tempest) and the Bob and Doug Mackenzie comedy from 1983 "Strange Brew" (Hamlet).