Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- BBI-ANG22-227E.08
- Title
- Reading Literary Texts: Side Characters in Focal Position: Shakespeare dramas reloaded
- Usual semester
- Both
- Published semester
- 2026/27/1
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- The course intends to focus on “Shakespeare-remakes” or drama adaptations, which abandon the protagonists of the early-modern plays to place one or more side characters into the centre of the action and attention. By destroying the original focal point, these remade, transformed plays will always provide new and thought-provoking interpretations to the Shakespeare text, and will help students to form their own questions and reload their interpretations not only of the adaptations but the Shakespeare-corpus as well. Learning Outcomes Knowledge The student is familiar with the canonical interpretations of major Shakespeare plays and the main features of contemporary reimaginings and adaptations. The student understands how adaptations focusing on minor characters can shift and reshape the interpretative framework of the origin play. The student is familiar with key intermedial tools (film, music, visual arts) used in the context of literary reinterpretation. Skills The student can perform textual analysis that accounts for both the Shakespeare play and its adaptation. The student is able to interpret and analyze the dialogue between literary texts and their intermedial adaptations. The student can formulate new perspectives and questions about well-known Shakespeare texts, especially from the viewpoint of side characters. The student is capable of critically reflecting on the new interpretive possibilities offered by the adaptations. Attitudes The student is open to the diversity of literary reinterpretations and sensitive to alternative approaches to canonical literature. The student shows interest in exploring intermedial and intertextual relationships. The student respects differing interpretations and actively participates in critical dialogue. The student is committed to rethinking classical literature in a contemporary context.
- Course content
- The classes will be traditional text-reading seminars on the one hand, but the texts will be supported with additional intermedial content, such as fine arts, film, music and other artforms, which will possibly make the classes more intriguing and colourful. From the Shakespeare-corpus it is mainly Hamlet and King Lear that will be discussed, and plays based on characters overshadowed by the protagonists in the early-modern texts: Gertrude, Fortinbras, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; and Lear’s wife and daughters and his Fool.
- Assessment method
- Active in-class participation; presentation or essay and in class tests/essay; no more than three absences
- Bibliography
- Daniel Fischlin and Mark Fortier: Adaptations of Shakespeare Thomas Leitch: The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies Howard Barker: Gertrude, the Cry; 7 Lears; Lee Blessing: Fortinbras Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Gordon Bottomley: King Lear’s Wife Elaine Feinstein and the Women’s Theatre Group: Lear’s Daughters Kállay Géza: A Lear király és holdudvara