Hamlet in Adaptation

TU Chemnitz | Wintersemester 2024 / 2025 Hamlet in Adaptation

Content:

“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Another question is whether Hamlet is a self-righteous brooding type, a depressive melancholic, a mummy’s boy or a rebel and social revolutionary. Or is he, according to Laurence Olivier, even the “first real pacifist”? During the course of the seminar, students will not only read and discuss Hamlet but will also be introduced to the highly complex relationship between a literary text and its adaptations to film and theatre. To this end, we will watch and analyse Laurence Olivier’s 1947 Hamlet adaptation, Franco Zeffirelli’s (1991) stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare’s play which stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the ambivalent Danish prince, and Michael Almereyda’s 1999 postmodern adaptation which is set in New York in the year 2000. A surprise film will await eager students of Hamlet adaptations.

Objectives:

Besides analysing the play and a selection of its different cinematic adaptations, students will also engage with theoretical concepts pertaining to the field of drama theories, adaptation theories and theories of media change. They will evaluate the representations of Hamlet on the Internet and work with audio versions of the play. Thus, they will be encouraged to explore the aesthetic literary, filmic, cultural, and historical milieus of Hamlet in order to share their ideas with the other students in the class through discussions and/or group work.

Requirements for credits:

A close reading of the primary text, historical, theoretical, as well as secondary texts are part of the seminar work (credit point allocation). In addition, students will collaboratively plan a film series featuring the above-mentioned adaptations of Hamlet. This will include curating the films, organising the screening schedule, and leading pre- and post-viewing discussions. Moreover, a meeting with the dramaturge of the theatre will provide students with professional insights into the challenges and creative processes involved in staging Hamlet. If possible, an excursion to attend a live performance of Hamlet will be organised. This will be followed by a discussion session to compare the live performance with the film adaptations studied in class. Finally, we will invite a representative from a publishing house to give a guest lecture, providing students with an insider’s perspective on the publishing industry, the process of translation and/or bringing Shakespearean texts to contemporary audiences, and the challenges involved in publishing canonical literature.

Set Text:

Shakespeare, William (1983 [1601]): Hamlet. Harold Jenkins (ed.) Walton-on-Thames, Surrey: Arden.