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Literary Criticism English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

Devouring Time

Nostalgia in Contemporary Shakespearean Screen Adaptations

by (author) Philippa Sheppard

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
May 2017
Category
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773550193
    Publish Date
    May 2017
    List Price
    $110.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780773550209
    Publish Date
    May 2017
    List Price
    $40.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773550223
    Publish Date
    May 2017
    List Price
    $40.95

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Description

From Kenneth Branagh’s groundbreaking Henry V to Justin Kurzel’s haunting Macbeth, many modern filmmakers have adapted Shakespeare for the big screen. Their translations of Renaissance plays to modern cinema both highlight and comment on contemporary culture and attitudes to art, identity, and the past. A dynamic analysis of twenty-seven films adapted from Shakespeare’s works, Philippa Sheppard’s Devouring Time addresses a wide range of topics, including gender, ritual, music, setting, rhetoric, and editing. She argues that the directors’ choice to adapt these four-hundred-year-old plays is an act of nostalgia, not only for the plays themselves, but also for the period in which they were written, the association of genius that accompanies them, and the medium of theatre. Sheppard contends that millennial anxiety brought on by the social and technological revolutions of the last five decades has generated a yearning for Shakespeare because he is an icon of a literary culture that is often deemed threatened. Authoritative and accessible, Devouring Time’s investigations of filmmakers’ nostalgia for the art of the past shed light on Western concepts of gender, identity, and colonialism.

About the author

Philippa Sheppard teaches Renaissance and modern drama at the University of Toronto.

Philippa Sheppard's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Devouring Time's attention to detail, breadth of films and plays covered, and attentiveness to cinematic methods in addition to literary ones add important perspective to the field. Fueled by debates in the field, both old and new, Sheppard's forward-thi

"Philippa Sheppard's focus on nostalgia is an important, original, and well-developed step forward. Her writing is engaging, witty, and clearly expressed." Michael Saenger, Southwestern University