Hamlet & the X-Files
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HAMLET & THE X-FILES
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Title: The Truth Is Out There in Elsinore: Mulder and Scully as Hamlet and Horatio. Authors: Yang, Sharon R.1 Source: Literature Film Quarterly; 2004, Vol. 32 Issue 2, p97, 11p Document Type: Article Subject Terms: *CRITICISM
*MASS media Reviews & Products: HAMLET (Theatrical production)
X-Files, The (TV program) People: CHARNES, Linda
MALLIN, Eric Abstract: This article analyzes the relationship between the drama, Hamlet, and the television program, The X-Files, using the context of the second part of the two-part seventh-season premier, The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati. Eric Mallin and Linda Charnes note that the 1990s have brought film paratexts of Hamlet. Mallin looks at the film, Last Action Hero, and Charnes at the television series, The L.A. Story, as two significant examples of such paratexts adapting the mythos of William Shakespeare's Hamlet to late twentieth-century concerns. The film noir elements of The X-Files are obvious. Its cinematography, despite color, relies heavily on portraying the world in ahich the characters move as shadows, while using these shadows to create symbolic shapes or to limit the audience's perception of events or characters. Even more specific to Charnes' observations on Hamlets's and noir's depiction of paranoia, The X-Files also provides a hero obsessed with knowing, but sometimes incapacitated by the ramifications and personal responsibilities this knowledge entails. In both The X-Files and Hamlet, infection or putrefaction, the supernatural and madness serve as metaphors for the corruption beneath the surface of the supposedly stable law. Author Affiliations: 1Worcester State College ISSN: 0090-4260 Accession Number: 13499723 Database: Academic Search Elite _____ This e-mail was generated by a user of EBSCOhost who gained access via the LUZERNE COUNTY COMM COLLEGE account. Neither EBSCO nor LUZERNE COUNTY COMM COLLEGE are responsible for the content of this e-mail.