FEMINIST SHAKESPEARES: ADAPTING SHAKESPEARE FOR A MODERN AUDIENCE IN THE HOGARTH SHAKESPEARE PROJECT A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS in ENGLISH by COLLEEN ETMAN APRIL 2017 at THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA AT THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON AND THE CITADEL Approved by: Dr. Kate Pilhuj, Thesis Advisor Dr. Sean Heuston Dr. William Russell Dr. Brian McGee, Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT FEMINIST SHAKESPEARES: ADAPTING SHAKESPEARE FOR A MODERN AUDIENCE IN THE HOGARTH SHAKESPEARE PROJECT A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS in ENGLISH by COLLEEN ETMAN APRIL 2017 at THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA AT THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON AND THE CITADEL The Hogarth Shakespeare Project presents a way to view Shakespeare’s plays through a different lens. These books allow for a feminist reading of Shakespeare, looking at some of Shakespeare’s ill-treated female characters to construct a new idea of female characterization. Three of the plays adapted, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew, were adapted by female authors. By investigating how these plays are being adapted for a more contemporary audience, with modern conceptions of feminism and gender roles, we can gain insight as to how these concepts have changed since Shakespeare’s time. By looking at these modern adaptations, we can interrogate how modern audiences as a whole conceptualize and, potentially, idealize Shakespeare, as well as understanding the progression of treatment of women in contemporary culture since Shakespeare’s time. The novels addressed in this project are The Gap of Time by Jeannette Winterson, Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, and Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler. The project concludes that, of the three, Vinegar Girl does the most effective job addressing the problematic aspects of its adapted play in a new way, distinguishing it from previous adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew. This project also investigates the role that adaptation theory plays in addressing Shakespeare adaptations, particularly the Hogarth Shakespeare Project. 2 © 2017 Colleen Etman 3 Acknowledgments I would like to take a moment to thank all those who made this project possible. I would like to thank the joint Master of Arts in English program at the College of Charleston and The Citadel. This program, in addition to providing an excellent education, introduced me to a variety of professors and educational styles. I ended up having some of my favorite classes at The Citadel, which would never have been possible if it weren’t for the joint program. I would like to thank my program directors, Tim Carens and Mike Duvall, who guided me through my degree and provided assistance in beginning this project. I would like to thank my thesis defense members, Sean Heuston and William Russell, who willingly gave their time to read this behemoth. You gave me excellent feedback and friendly faces in my defense. I would also like to thank you for teaching me some of my favorite classes in my program. I will remember your classes very fondly and consider them when I develop my own teaching style. I would like to thank my husband, Daniel Nesmith, who has dealt with months of me muttering about Shakespeare and using the word “problematic” probably far too many times. Your patience and care of me helped this project become possible. And finally, I would like to thank Kate Pilhuj, who is an absolute saint. You have been beyond amazing. Your patience, guidance, and sense of humor have all allowed me to progress this far. You are the best mentor I have ever had. My greatest hope is to one day show a student the same dedication that you have shown me. 4 Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgments iii Table of Contents iv Chapter One: Introduction 1 Adaptation and Shakespeare 3 Adaptation Theory 3 Adapting Shakespeare 9 The Hogarth Shakespeare Project 15 Chapter Two: Winterson’s Tale 20 The Winter’s Tale 20 The Gap of Time 27 Chapter Three: Atwood’s Tempest 43 The Tempest 44 Hag-Seed 55 Chapter Four: Tyler’s Shrew 69 The Taming of the Shrew 70 Vinegar Girl 81 Chapter Five: Conclusions 94 Bibliography 104 5 Chapter One: Introduction Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare is no longer remembered as just a man – a poet, an author, an actor. Now, he is remembered as the backbone of English literature, an icon of the English Renaissance, a metonymy of sorts for all things classic and British. To many non-scholars, Shakespeare is English literature. This perception is not always a favorable representation. Many representations of Shakespeare in modern culture – such as the No Fear, Shakespeare annotation series for students and popular culture representations like the parodic film Gnomeo and Juliet – portray the man as something between an enemy to be feared and an idea to be ridiculed. Clearly, somewhere between his death in 1616 and today, Shakespeare’s growing reputation created a culture of antipathy, despite the scholarly culture of academic Bardolatry. There are many reasons that Shakespeare may appear as unappealing to some. Often, readers may find the work of understanding plays that were never meant to be read as too labor-intensive. Other readers may be put off by themes of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and the like, that do not translate well from Elizabethan England to the 21st century. Still others may think that there is just nothing to which they can relate in plays written four hundred years ago. This gap in appreciation and time is where the Hogarth Shakespeare Project comes in. Created in commemoration of the four-hundredth 6 anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, in their own words, “sees Shakespeare’s works retold by acclaimed and bestselling novelists of today” (Tyler 239). In other words, the Hogarth Shakespeare Project is a series of novelizations of Shakespeare’s plays written by today’s best-selling and critically acclaimed authors. These novelizations seek to update Shakespeare for a new audience, reaching out to new readers by making his works more accessible to a wider audience. By using popular authors, the Hogarth Shakespeare banks on name recognition, inviting those who already enjoy, or at least recognize, these authors to take a look at these new novels. However, there is another effect of using popular authors that may have a greater impact on reaching out to a new audience: by utilizing a greater fleet of authors with diverse backgrounds, rather than one sole white male author, the Hogarth Shakespeare allows for a new generation of voices to retell and rework some of the more unfavorable aspects of Shakespeare’s content. Minority authors are able to present the themes and stories of Shakespeare’s plays without being overwhelmed by the sexism, the racism, the xenophobia, and other off-putting ideas that turn off many readers. Rather, they are able to tackle these issues head on and create a deeper discussion of the lingering place that Shakespeare and his works have in a modern culture. This strategy may be the greatest road to success for the Hogarth Shakespeare, allowing the spirit of his work to live on and reach new generations of readers by demonstrating that Shakespeare does not have to unequivocally mean confusing plots, arcane wording, and out-moded ideologies. In particular, three of the authors so far published, Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood, and Anne Tyler, are able to examine and address the prevalent sexism found in Shakespeare’s work. Analyzing three of 7 Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” Winterson, Atwood, and Tyler are able to give voice to female and other minority characters in a new way. As such, these women are participating in the creation of a new Shakespeare, a more feminist and female-friendly Shakespeare. Adaptation and Shakespeare In order to understand the tactics and potential success and appeal of the Hogarth Shakespeare, we have to put these adaptations in context. The Hogarth Shakespeare is by no means the first attempt to revisit Shakespeare’s works. The history of Shakespearean adaptation dates from his own time, with his own contemporaries retelling and reworking his stories. In the centuries since, the field of Shakespearean adaptations has become a large and potentially overbearing body of work. To better understand and discuss Shakespearean adaptation, it is important to lay the groundwork of explaining what exactly an adaptation is and how it can be discussed. Adaptation Theory The field of adaptation studies and adaptation theory is a constantly changing, and at times controversial, body of theory. Because adaptation scholars work with not just a source text, but also the myriad adaptations of said text, the number of texts becomes exponentially larger than the original field of study. Thus, it is important to know where to start. Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation is an essential text for understanding adaptation theory. “Adaptation,” Hutcheon claims, “has run amok” (XI). The field has become clogged with differing ideas of what an adaptation is and what it means, with varying theoretical approaches (Derridean, Foucaultian, etc.) applied, and a general 8 hubbub of voices all trying to talk over each other. Thus, Hutcheon devotes an entire book to simply explaining the who, what, when, where, and whys of adaptation. The “what,” however, is not so simple. Hutcheon dances around the definition of adaptation, never quite settling on one. The most easy-to-digest answer that Hutcheon gives is derived from Gerard Genette, who claims that adaptation is “a text in the ‘second degree’” (qtd.