Shakespeare on Screen: King Lear

An up-to-date survey of Shakespeare's King Lear on screen and the aesthetic, social and political issues raised by screen versions.

Victoria Bladen (Edited by), Sarah Hatchuel (Edited by), Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin (Edited by)

9781108446891, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 August 2021

276 pages, 13 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg

'The collection contains more richly suggestive essays than I have space to mention; it will be indispensable to students of King Lear. The editors' calculated broad approach creates a collection that is more than the sum of its parts, and which is animated by a sense of conscience and compassion.' Sally Barnden, Shakespeare Bulletin

The third volume in the re-launched series Shakespeare on Screen is devoted to film versions and adaptations of King Lear. Bringing together an international group of scholars, the chapters provide new insights and perspectives on what constitutes 'Learness' in a range of films, TV productions, translations, free retellings and appropriations from around the world. Taking 'screen' in its broader sense, it also covers digital material such as video archives, internet movies and YouTube videos. The volume features an invaluable film-bibliography and accompanying online resources include additional essays and an expanded version of the film-bibliography.

1. Introduction: dis-locating King Lear on screen Victoria Bladen, Sarah Hatchuel and Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin
Part I. Surviving Lear: Revisiting the Canon: 2. Lear's Fool on film: Peter Brook, Grigori Kozintsev, Akira Kurosawa Samuel Crowl
3. Wicked humans and weeping Buddhas: (post)humanism and Hell in Kurosawa's Ran Melissa Croteau
Part II. Lear en abyme: Metatheater and the Screen: 4. Filming metatheater: the 'Dover cliff' scene on screen Sarah Hatchuel
5. New ways of looking at Lear: changing relationships between theatre, screen and audience in live broadcasts of King Lear (2011–2016) Rachael Nicholas
6. Re-shaping old course in a country new: producing nation, culture and King Lear in Slings and Arrows Lois Leveen
Part III. The Genres of Lear: 7. Negotiating authorship, genre and race in King of Texas (2002) Pierre Kapitaniak
8. Romancing King Lear: Hobson's Choice, Life Goes On and beyond Diana E. Henderson
9. 'Easy Lear': Harry and Tonto and the American road movie Douglas M. Lanier
Part IV. Lear on the Loose: Migrations and Appropriations of Lear: 10. Relocating Jewish culture in The Yiddish King Lear (1934) Jacek Fabiszak
11. The Trump effect: exceptionalism, global capitalism and the war on women in early twenty-first century films of King Lear Courtney Lehmann
12. Looking for Lear in The Eye of the Storm Victoria Bladen
13. Between political drama and soap opera: appropriations of King Lear in US television series Boss and Empire Sylvaine Bataille and Anaïs Pauchet
14. Afterword: Godard's King Lear Peter Holland
15. King Lear on screen: select film-bibliography José Ramón Díaz Fernández.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare plays [DDS], Literature & literary studies [D], Films, cinema [APF]