This engaging and stimulating book argues that Shakespeare’s plays significantly influenced movie genres in the twentieth century, particularly in films concerning love in the classic Hollywood period. Shakespeare’s ‘green world’ has a close functional equivalent in ‘tinseltown’ and on ‘the silver screen’, as well as in hybrid genres in Bollywood cinema. Meanwhile,
Romeo and Juliet continues to be an enduring source for romantic tragedy on screen. The nature of generic indebtedness has not gained recognition because it is elusive and not always easy to recognise. The book traces generic links between Shakespeare’s comedies of love and screen genres such as romantic comedy, ‘screwball’ comedy and musicals, as well as clarifying the use of common conventions defining the genres, such as mistaken identity, ‘errors’, disguise and ‘shrew-taming’. Speculative, challenging and entertaining, the book will appeal to those interested in Shakespeare, movies and the representation of love in narratives.
Tabella dei contenuti
Introduction: Shakespeare shaping modern movie genres
1.’Madly mated’: The Taming of the Shrew and odd-couple comedy
2. Dreams in the forest: romantic comedy
3. ‘The guy’s only doing it for some doll’: musical comedy
4. Of errors and eros: a brief digression on twins
5. Comedy of disguise and mistaken identity
6. ‘Star-crossed lovers’: Romeo and Juliet and romantic tragedy
Conclusion
Index
Circa l’autore
R. S. White is Winthrop Professor of English at the University of Western Australia
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