Authorizing Shakespeare on Film and Television examines recent film and television
transformations of William Shakespeare's drama by focusing on the ways in which modern
directors acknowledge and respond to the perceived authority of Shakespeare as author text
cultural icon theatrical tradition and academic institution. This study explores two central
questions. First what efforts do directors make to justify their adaptations and assert an
interpretive authority of their own? Second how do those self-authorizing gestures impact upon
the construction of gender class and ethnic identity within the filmed adaptations of
Shakespeare's plays? The chosen films and television series considered take a wide range of
approaches to the adaptative process - some faithfully preserve the words of Shakespeare
others jettison the Early Modern language in favor of contemporary idiom some recreate the
geographic and historical specificity of the original plays and others transplant theplot to
fresh settings. The wealth of extra-textual material now available with film and television
distribution and the numerous website tie-ins and interviews offer the critic a mine of
material for accessing the ways in which directors perceive the looming Shakespearean shadow
and justify their projects. Authorizing Shakespeare on Film and Television places these
directorial claims alongside the film and television plotting and aesthetic to investigate how
such authorizing gestures shape the presentation of gender class and ethnicity.
