ENGL 247 - Shakespeare in the Colonies

Semester Offered: First Semester
Full Course
Credits: 4 credits
Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

What happens when Shakespeare travels from England to its former colonies in South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean? Framed by Shakespeare’s canonical position in cultural texts from these former colonies, this course will examine revisionary appropriations of his plays by contemporary Indian cinema and postcolonial literary texts. Our discussions will be informed by postcolonial scholarship on revision and translation as forms of transformation and subversion and theories of cinematic and literary adaptations. Assignments will include informal written and oral presentations and formal writing assignments on the literary, theoretical, and cinematic texts and film viewings. This course is required for the From Bombay to Cairo: Cinema and Social Change StudiOC Learning Community.

Enrollment Limit: 25
Instructor: A. Needham

Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
Prerequisites & Notes: This course requires students to also take HIST 247: Cinema, Social Movements and Revolution in Egypt. As a ‘globally connected course’ it is also connected with a course in Comparative Literature offered at the American University in Cairo (AUC): “Literature and Cinema: Writing Back/Filming Back.”