DOCSLIB.ORG

'Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth', Clcweb

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
'Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth', Clcweb CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 6 (2004) Issue 1 Article 4 Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth Yuwen Hsiung Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <[email protected]> Recommended Citation Hsiung, Yuwen. "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1207> This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field. The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 10331 times as of 11/07/19. Note: the download counts of the journal's material are since Issue 9.1 (March 2007), since the journal's format in pdf (instead of in html 1999-2007). This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. This is an Open Access journal. This means that it uses a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. Readers may freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles. This journal is covered under the CC BY-NC-ND license. UNIVERSITY PRESS <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu > CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 < http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb > Purdue University Press ©Purdue University CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture , the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." In addition to the publication of articles, the journal publishes review articles of scholarly books and publishes research material in its Library Series. Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Langua-ge Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monog-raph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: < [email protected] > CLCWeb Volume 6 Issue 1 (March 2004) Article 4 Yuwen Hsiung, "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth " <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol6/iss1/4> Contents of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004) Thematic Issue Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood Edited by Charles Ross <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol6/iss1/ > Abstract: Yuwen Hsiung presents in her paper, "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth ," a comparative study between Kurosawa's film Throne of Blood and a contemporary Taiwanese play, Kingdom of Desire , both of which are adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth . Stepping from Eastern cultural background, both show similar orientation towards the original play, for instance the sizing down of the number of witches and the decreasing of Macbeth's heroic status. Gilles Deleuze's theory of movement image provides an insightful look into Kurosawa's filmology, which emphasizes the interrelatedness of every individual under the same condition. The idea of collectivity could be examined in two ways, diachronically and synchronically: Kingdom of Desire , although it resembles Throne of Blood in terms of plot, brings our attention back to individuality by focusing on the transformation of the protagonist. Macbeth, the character, would never appeal to the traditional Chinese theater; however, it is made accessible in Chinese culture by centering on individual responsibility towards one's own action. Yuwen Hsiung, "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth " page 2 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol6/iss1/4> Yuwen HSIUNG Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood made its first debut in 1957. Even though some have criticized the film for being too westernized, it has established itself as the most internationally recognized adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth not only in terms of Japan but also in terms of East Asia or an even larger geographical area. Needless to say, Kurosawa's Throne of Blood remains a profound influence upon later adaptations of Macbeth . This legacy might be particularly apparent in East Asian countries that have a cultural closeness to Japan and therefore would interpret the English play in similar ways. Having this in mind, I would compare an adaptation of Macbeth entitled Yuwang chengguo (Kingdom of Desire) with Throne of Blood . Kingdom of Desire is a stage performance by Dangdai chuanqi juchang (The Contemporary Legend Theatre) from Taiwan. I choose Kingdom of Desire because it not only gains relatively wide international acceptance than others, but it also blends the traditional Beijing opera style beautifully with the modern theatre. In a similar way, Kurosawa's Throne of Blood brings traditional Japanese theater, the Noh conventions, into modern film. Keeping in mind that one is film and the other is stage performance, I will compare Throne of Blood and Kingdom of Desire to show how each envisions Macbeth from a particular cultural orientation. My discussion on Kingdom of Desire will be primarily based on its book publication in 2000, which includes script, stage directions, critical reviews, and many photos of the original performance. I focus on the role of the witch in order to argue that the heroic status of Macbeth in both works has been decreased considerably but in opposite ways. Throne of Blood asserts an experience of collectivity, whereas Kingdom of Desire shifts our attention back to individuality, like the original Shakespeare play. What they have in common is the Buddhist idea of relinquishing secular ambition and desire; otherwise, we lead ourselves into self-destruction and fall into a ceaseless, vicious circle of nothing. The Contemporary Legend Theatre, which flourished during the later years in the 1980s, is one of the leading theatrical troupes in Taiwan. It has distinguished itself from all the other troupes for its special artistic approaches. Contemporary Legend Theatre attempts to incorporate some particular elements from the traditional Beijing opera, such as certain ways of speaking, singing, and performing, and especially acrobatics. This troupe not only makes the traditional more accessible, but also brings a new atmosphere to the multiplicity of contemporary Taiwanese theatre. Hsing-kuo Wu, the founder as well as the director of this troupe, exerts a shaping influence on the theater company. Many of their performances are adaptations of Western dramas, especially Shakespearean plays. Another famous adaptation is Revenge of the Prince , based on Hamlet . The most recent one is King Lear , in which Wu, as an actor himself, not only plays King Lear but also the fool. So we can see that the significance of Wu to this troupe also lies in his being the leading character in most of the plays. Needless to say, in Kingdom of Desire he plays the role of General Aw as Macbeth. Historically, Kurosawa's Throne of Blood came in 1957 and Kingdom of Desire was first performed in 1986, some thirty years after. Because Kurosawa's film had become such a landmark in Taiwan's theatrical circles, Kingdom of Desire resembles Throne of Blood quite extensively in terms of plot. We can even argue that Kingdom of Desire is an adaptation of Kurosawa's film rather than Shakespeare's play. However, because it is a stage performance like Shakespeare's Macbeth , Kingdom of Desire shares some similarities with the original in terms of theatrical qualities, for instance, the opening scene features witches but also comic relief. As a result, we might claim that Kingdom of Desire comes closer to Macbeth than Throne of Blood does. Historical background has to be carefully scrutinized when we translate a text from one culture into another. The time setting in Throne of Blood is sixteenth-century Japan, a period called gekoku-jo ("overthrown-by-underlings"), when the moral order started to get dissolved. Daisetz Suzuki reminds us of the traditional Japanese idea of a warrior: "Zen is indeed the religion of the samurai warrior" (84). Samurais believed in the Zen ideas of loyalty and sacrificing one's life for a worthy cause. Hence a treacherous warrior like Macbeth would be inconceivable in this early period of Yuwen Hsiung, "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth " page 3 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol6/iss1/4> Japan.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bibliography for the Study of Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood
    CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 6 (2004) Issue 1 Article 13 Bibliography for the Study of Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood Lucian Ghita Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <[email protected]> Recommended Citation Ghita, Lucian. "Bibliography for the Study of Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1216> The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 2531 times as of 11/ 07/19.
    [Show full text]
  • A TASTE of SHAKESPEARE: MACBETH a 52 Minute Video Available for Purchase Or Rental from Bullfrog Films
    A TASTE OF SHAKESPEARE MACBETH Produced by Eugenia Educational Foundation Teacher’s Guide The video with Teacher’s Guide A TASTE OF SHAKESPEARE: MACBETH a 52 minute video available for purchase or rental from Bullfrog Films Produced in Association with BRAVO! Canada: a division of CHUM Limited Produced with the Participation of the Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund; with the Assistance of The Department of Canadian Heritage Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Ontario Trillium Foundation: an agency of the Ministry of Culture The Catherine & Maxwell Meighen Foundation The Norman & Margaret Jewison Foundation George Lunan Foundation J.P. Bickell Foundation Sir Joseph Flavelle Foundation ©2003 Eugenia Educational Foundation A Taste of Shakespeare: Macbeth Program Description A Taste of Shakespeare is a series of thought-provoking videotapes of Shakespeare plays, in which actors play the great scenes in the language of 16th and 17th century England, but comment on the action in the English of today. Each video is under an hour in length and is designed to introduce the play to students in high school and college. The teacher’s guide that comes with each video gives – among other things – a brief analysis of the play, topics for discussion or essays, and a short list of recom- mended reading. Production Notes At the beginning and end of this blood- soaked tragic play Macbeth fights bravely: loyal to his King and true to himself. (It takes nothing away from his valour that in the final battle King and self are one.) But in between the first battle and the last Macbeth betrays and destroys King, country, and whatever is good in his own nature.
    [Show full text]
  • From 'Scottish' Play to Japanese Film: Kurosawa's Throne of Blood
    arts Article From ‘Scottish’ Play to Japanese Film: Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood Dolores P. Martinez Emeritus Reader, SOAS, University of London, London WC1H 0XG, UK; [email protected] Received: 16 May 2018; Accepted: 6 September 2018; Published: 10 September 2018 Abstract: Shakespeare’s plays have become the subject of filmic remakes, as well as the source for others’ plot lines. This transfer of Shakespeare’s plays to film presents a challenge to filmmakers’ auterial ingenuity: Is a film director more challenged when producing a Shakespearean play than the stage director? Does having auterial ingenuity imply that the film-maker is somehow freer than the director of a play to change a Shakespearean text? Does this allow for the language of the plays to be changed—not just translated from English to Japanese, for example, but to be updated, edited, abridged, ignored for a large part? For some scholars, this last is more expropriation than pure Shakespeare on screen and under this category we might find Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo¯ 1957), the subject of this essay. Here, I explore how this difficult tale was translated into a Japanese context, a society mistakenly assumed to be free of Christian notions of guilt, through the transcultural move of referring to Noh theatre, aligning the story with these Buddhist morality plays. In this manner Kurosawa found a point of commonality between Japan and the West when it came to stories of violence, guilt, and the problem of redemption. Keywords: Shakespeare; Kurosawa; Macbeth; films; translation; transcultural; Noh; tragedy; fate; guilt 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Donald Richie: Throne of Blood and the Films of Akira Kurosawa
    RESOURCES ESSAYS DONALD RICHIE: THRONE OF BLOOD AND THE FILMS OF AKIRA KUROSAWA By Judith Brodhead THRONE OF BLOOD THE CRITERION COLLECTION DVD/VHS, 109 MINUTES, 1957 any Western educators would have a more difficult time M deciphering much of twenti- eth-century Japanese film without the aid of author and critic Donald Richie. Author of more than forty books, includ- ing dozens on film, Richie’s rewarding relationship with Japan has lasted nearly sixty years. His writing is a Rosetta stone for those who may be mystified by elements of Japanese film and its most famous director, Akira Kurosawa. Fortunately for college and high school instructors, Richie’s work on Kurosawa makes it easier to integrate Japanese film and literature into class- rooms. In this essay I’ll discuss how to use Kurosawa’s film Throne of Blood, Lord Washizu and Lady Asaji in Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood. ©1957 Toho Co. Ltd. Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and a chapter from Richie’s Films of Akira Kurosawa. Using Throne of Blood in fascinated by at least some of its elements, whether samurai battle conjunction with Richie’s work will introduce students, among other scenes or the evil Lady Asaji, Lady Macbeth’s counterpart. It is the things, to N¬h drama, medieval Japan, and Western and Japanese work of Donald Richie, who knew Kurosawa and has written about notions of leadership and the human condition. him extensively, that can help unlock the mysteries of the film for both Anyone teaching Macbeth today has many options: in addition student and instructor.
    [Show full text]
  • Macbeth in World Cinema: Selected Film and Tv Adaptations
    International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) ISSN 2249-6912 Vol. 3, Issue 1, Mar 2013, 179-188 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd. MACBETH IN WORLD CINEMA: SELECTED FILM AND TV ADAPTATIONS RITU MOHAN 1 & MAHESH KUMAR ARORA 2 1Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Management and Humanities, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal, Punjab, India 2Associate Professor, Department of Management and Humanities, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal, Punjab, India ABSTRACT In the rich history of Shakespearean translation/transcreation/appropriation in world, Macbeth occupies an important place. Macbeth has found a long and productive life on Celluloid. The themes of this Bard’s play work in almost any genre, in any decade of any generation, and will continue to find their home on stage, in film, literature, and beyond. Macbeth can well be said to be one of Shakespeare’s most performed play and has enchanted theatre personalities and film makers. Much like other Shakespearean works, it holds within itself the most valuable quality of timelessness and volatility because of which the play can be reproduced in any regional background and also in any period of time. More than the localization of plot and character, it is in the cinematic visualization of Shakespeare’s imagery that a creative coalescence of the Shakespearean, along with the ‘local’ occurs. The present paper seeks to offer some notable (it is too difficult to document and discuss all) adaptations of Macbeth . The focus would be to provide introductory information- name of the film, country, language, year of release, the director, star-cast and the critical reception of the adaptation among audiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Shakespeare Wallah
    Shakespeare and Film 1910 The film The shortest The film adaptation 1913 Taming of of Hamlet, only the Shrew, 59 minutes, was starring released. 1929 Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks, was the first ‘talkie’ version of a Khoon Ka Khoon (Blood Shakespeare play. for Blood) or Hamlet, 1930 directed by Sohrab Modi, was the first Hindi/Urdu sound film adaptation of a Shakespeare play. 1935 The adaptation 1936 of As You Like It The first television marked the first broadcast of Shakespeare appearance 1937 was on 5 February 1937. of Laurence The BBC broadcast an Olivier as a character in a 11-minute scene from Shakespearean film. As You Like It, starring Margaretta Scott as Rosalind and Ion 1940 Swinley as Orlando. Laurence Olivier’s adaptation of Henry V 1944 was an attempt to boost morale and patriotism “This is the during the Second World War. tragedy of a 1948 man who could not make up his mind…” —From the spoken prologue of Laurence Olivier’s version of Hamlet. 1950 1952 Orson Welles directed “Look upon the ruins/ Of and starred in his film the castle of delusion.” adaptation of Othello. —Lines from the prologue 1957 of the Japanese adaptation of The Bad Sleep Well, a Macbeth, Japanese film involving Kumonosu-jÔ 1960 corporate greed and (Throne of Blood). vengeance, is released as a loose adaptation 1960 of Hamlet. Shakespeare Wallah, though not an adaptation of a play, features a fictional theater troupe The Swedish film Elvira in India that performs 1965 Madigan was reminiscent Shakespeare plays in of Romeo and Juliet, towns across the nation.
    [Show full text]
  • 10-12-2019 Macbeth Eve.Indd
    GIUSEPPE VERDI macbeth conductor Opera in four acts Marco Armiliato Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave production Adrian Noble and Andrea Maffei, based on the play by William Shakespeare set and costume designer Mark Thompson Saturday, October 12, 2019 lighting designer 8:30–11:40 PM Jean Kalman choreographer Sue Lefton Last time this season The production of Macbeth was made possible by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone Additional funding was received from Mr. and Mrs. William R. Miller; Hermione Foundation, Laura Sloate, Trustee; and The Gilbert S. Kahn & John J. Noffo Kahn Endowment Fund Revival a gift of Rolex general manager Peter Gelb jeanette lerman-neubauer music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin 2019–20 SEASON The 111th Metropolitan Opera performance of GIUSEPPE VERDI’S macbeth conductor Marco Armiliato in order of appearance macbeth fle ance Željko Lučić Misha Grossman banquo a murderer Ildar Abdrazakov Richard Bernstein l ady macbeth apparitions Anna Netrebko a warrior Christopher Job l ady-in-waiting Sarah Cambidge a bloody child Meigui Zhang** a servant Bradley Garvin a crowned child Karen Chia-Ling Ho duncan a her ald Raymond Renault Yohan Yi malcolm a doctor Giuseppe Filianoti Harold Wilson macduff Matthew Polenzani Saturday, October 12, 2019, 8:30–11:40PM MARTY SOHL / MET OPERA A scene from Chorus Master Donald Palumbo Verdi’s Macbeth Assistants to the Set Designer Colin Falconer and Alex Lowde Assistant to the Costume Designer Mitchell Bloom Musical Preparation John Keenan, Yelena Kurdina, Bradley Moore*, and Jonathan C. Kelly Assistant Stage Directors Eric Sean Fogel and Gina Lapinski Stage Band Conductor Bradley Moore* Fight Director Joe Isenberg Italian Coach Hemdi Kfir Prompter Yelena Kurdina Scenery, properties, and electrical props constructed and painted in Metropolitan Opera Shops Costumes executed by Metropolitan Opera Costume Department Wigs and Makeup executed by Metropolitan Opera Wig and Makeup Department This production uses flash effects.
    [Show full text]
  • The Historical Context of Macbeth
    The Historical Context of Macbeth EXPLORING Shakespeare, 2003 Shakespeare wrote Macbeth sometime between 1605 and 1606, shortly after the ascension of King James of Scotland to the English throne. The new monarch brought Scotland—previously known to the English only as a mysterious, conquered neighbor—into the public limelight. The period of James' reign was further marked by political and religious conflict, much of which focused the kingdom's attention on the danger of regicide. Events in History at the Time of the Play Sources Following the process used in the creation of many of his plays, Shakespeare drew the plot for Macbeth from historical sources—particularly Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577), the authoritative historical text of the period. Although Holinshed contains the story of Macbeth and Duncan, Shakespeare did not rely on this only; rather, he combined different stories and different versions of the same story to create his drama. The Chronicles include an account of King Malcolm II (reigned 1005-34), whose throne passed first to Duncan I (reigned 1034-40) and then to Macbeth (reigned 1040-57), both of whom were his grandsons. For his portrayal of the murder through which Macbeth took Duncan's throne, Shakespeare mined another vein of the Chronicles—King Duff's death at the hands of one of his retainers, Donwald. In combining the two events, Shakespeare crafted a specific tone for the tale of regicide. When King Malcolm II of Scotland died in 1034, his last command was that the throne should pass to his oldest grandson, Duncan.
    [Show full text]
  • Maqbool and the Shakespearean Bandwagon
    Volume-3, Issue-3, December 2011, ISSN No. 1998 - 7889 Eastern University Journal From Birnamwood to BoUywood: Maqbool and the Shakespearean Bandwagon Sabbir Ahmed Cbowdhury • Shamsad Mortuza •• Abstract Th e purpose of this article is to understand the appearance and disappearance of Shakespeare in the culture industry and appreciate the malleable cultural resources that Shakespeare has to offer. Th e article recognizes the potential ofadaptive Iransformation of a literary text that critically engages both with the original and with the different social and cultural circumstances of the new productions. In particular. it looks at the adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth and the niche-marketing of Maqbool in a Jamesonian 'late capitalist'milieu. On the one hand, the adaptation can be viewed as a cannibalization of Shakespeare in which the Seal/ish legend of regicide becomes parallel to the power grappling in the Mumbai underworld. On the other hand, the film adaptation can be seen as an intellectual participation in a critical discourse thai blurs the distinction between 'high culture' and 'low culture '. The paper argues that V'lShal Bhardwaj's clever and creative adaptation of the original plot has given Shakespeare both topical and tropical colouring, but goes on to question the validity ofsuch an endeavour. William Shakespeare, the time-traveller, has reached the gateway to India apparently with a lost passport. His characters have received extreme makeover to blend in with 'Bollywood': Macbeth has become Maqbool (dir. Vishal Bhardawaj 2003), Othello has become Omkara (dir. Vishal Bhardawaj, 2006), Lear is set to see his last (The Last Lear, dir.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Shakespeare and Film
    Shakespeare and Film: A Bibliographic Index (from Film to Book) Jordi Sala-Lleal University of Girona [email protected] Research into film adaptation has increased very considerably over recent decades, a development that coincides with postmodern interest in cultural cross-overs, artistic hybrids or heterogeneous discourses about our world. Film adaptation of Shakespearian drama is at the forefront of this research: there are numerous general works and partial studies on the cinema that have grown out of the works of William Shakespeare. Many of these are very valuable and of great interest and, in effect, form a body of work that is hybrid and heterogeneous. It seems important, therefore, to be able to consult a detailed and extensive bibliography in this field, and this is the contribution that we offer here. This work aims to be of help to all researchers into Shakespearian film by providing a useful tool for ordering and clarifying the field. It is in the form of an index that relates the bibliographic items with the films of the Shakespearian corpus, going from the film to each of the citations and works that study it. Researchers in this field should find this of particular use since they will be able to see immediately where to find information on every one of the films relating to Shakespeare. Though this is the most important aspect, this work can be of use in other ways since it includes an ordered list of the most important contributions to research on the subject, and a second, extensive, list of films related to Shakespeare in order of their links to the various works of the canon.
    [Show full text]
  • What If Lady Macbeth Were Pregnant?: Amativeness, Procreation, and Future Dynasty in Maqbool
    Asian Shakespeares on Screen: Two Films in Perspective, special issue, edited by Alexa Huang, Borrowers and Lenders 4.2 (Spring/Summer 2009). What If Lady Macbeth Were Pregnant?: Amativeness, Procreation, and Future Dynasty in Maqbool William C. Ferleman, Oklahoma State University Abstract In Maqbool, Vishal Bhardwaj's unusually perceptive rewriting of Macbeth, an emphasis on Macbeth's future dynasty is rather conspicuously developed and reinforced (Trivedi 2007, 153). Murder and betrayal are not of much consequence in the modern Mumbai criminal underworld; these acts are quite simply part of the Mafia trade, and Macbeth/Maqbool is from the start an ignoble, cold-blooded murderer. It is love (or rather, sexual desire) and not treacherous murder that is the predominant transgression in Maqbool. The transgressive love affair between Macbeth/Maqbool and Lady Macbeth/ Nimmi (including Nimmi's scandalous pregnancy) is developed as a key motif in the film. Maqbool seeks to combat the policemen's prophecy that Kaka's (Banquo's) children will attain political rule in the future. Maqbool fights for his own future dynasty and is not seriously concerned about his personal political rule within the Mumbai gang. The film concerns forbidden sexuality, procreation, and Maqbool's desperate but determined hope for a future dynasty. Freud claimed that in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth is not grossly concerned about his personal political ambition; Macbeth is perhaps primarily preoccupied with his future dynasty. "Macbeth is incensed by this decree of destiny," Freud writes. "He is not content with the satisfaction of his own ambition, he desires to found a dynasty and not to have murdered for the benefit of strangers" (Freud 1991, 32).
    [Show full text]
  • Excerpt from Macbeth by William Shakespeare Act III, Scene I
    Excerpt from Macbeth by William Shakespeare Act III, Scene i Enter Banquo Banquo Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, Banquo realizes that Macbeth’s hands are As the weird women promised, and, I fear, unclean in Duncan’s death. He demonstrates Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said virtue by acknowledging that his best friend It should not stand in thy posterity, has crossed over a moral line. But that myself should be the root and father Of many kings. If there come truth from them— 5 As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine— Why, by the verities on thee made good, May they not be my oracles as well, And set me up in hope? But hush! no more. Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady 10 Macbeth, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants Macbeth. Here's our chief guest. Lady Macbeth. If he had been forgotten, It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all-thing unbecoming. Macbeth. Tonight we hold a solemn supper sir, And I'll request your presence. 15 Banquo. Let your highness Command upon me; to the which my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie For ever knit. Macbeth. Ride you this afternoon? 20 Grade 10: Macbeth Banquo. Ay, my good lord. Macbeth. We should have else desired your good advice, (Which still hath been both grave and prosperous) In this day's council; but we'll take tomorrow. Is't far you ride? 25 Banquo. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 'Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better, I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain.
    [Show full text]