Increasingly Shakespeare studies have included in their ambit performance both on stage and screen, and some of the most interesting recent critical studies have been in this area. We are no longer caught between the virtuality of the playscript and the ephemerality of the performance. Cinematic texts have a life all their own, dealing as they do with the international marketplace of culture and communication. In this seminar, while the paramount focus will be on Shakespeare in Indian cinema, be it successful Hindi films like Gulzar’s Angoor or Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool and Omkara, attention will be paid to Shakespeare performed in regional language cinema—classics like the Bengali Bhranti Bilash or the Malaylam Kaliyattam. In addition, we hope to have papers on Shakespeare as interpreted in the British film industry (the films of Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, for example,) in Hollywood (the work of Orson Welles and Baz Luhrman to name a few) and by renowned international directors like Grigori Kozintsev of the USSR, Akira Kurosawa of Japan and Franco Zeffirelli of Italy. Modern cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare plays, such as Gil Yunger’s Ten Things I Hate About You, Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet 2000 and Julie Taymor’s recent Tempest (2010) will also be included.
Please send a 500-word abstract with a title by 30 April 2011 to nitakr@gmail.com (Secretary, SSI). You will hear back from us by 30 May 2011.
If the Seminar Committee approves your abstract, you will be expected to submit the full paper, approximately 5000 words including notes and in MLA 7th edition format, by September 30, 2011.
