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Women And Visual Representations Of Space In Two Chinese Film Adaptations Of Hamlet

WAI FONG CHEANG1
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1 Chang Gung University, Taiwan, 259 Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kwei-Shan Tao-Yuan, Taiwan; 2014-2015 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, USA
Volume/Issue:
Volume 13: Issue 1
Published:
25 Mar 2015
Page Count:
1–21
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/genst-2015-0001
Open access

Abstract

This paper studies two Chinese film adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Xiaogang Feng’s The Banquet (2006) and Sherwood Hu’s Prince of the Himalayas (2006), by focusing on their visual representations of spaces allotted to women. Its thesis is that even though on the original Shakespearean stage details of various spaces might not be as vividly represented as in modern film productions, spaces are still crucial dramatic elements imbued with powerful significations. By analyzing the two Chinese film adaptations alongside the original Hamlet text, the paper attempts to reinterpret their different representations of spaces in relation to their different historical-cultural gender notions.

Keywords: film adaptation; Hamlet; Shakespeare; space; women

References

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  • Lefebvre, Henri. 1991 (1974). The Production of Space. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

  • Mullaney, Steven. 2013. “What’s Hamlet to Habermas? Spatial Literacy, Theatrical Publication and the Publics of the Early Modern Public Stage.” Making Space Public in Early Modern Europe. New York: Routledge, pp.17-40.

  • Prince of the Himalayas. 2006. Dir. Sherwood Hu. Perf. Purba Rgyal and Zomskyid. DVD.

  • Shakespeare, William. 1982. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. The Arden Shakespeare ed. London: Methuen.

  • Shakespeare, William. 1954. King Henry V. Ed. J. H. Walter. The Arden Shakespeare ed. London: Methuen.

  • West, Russel. 2002. Spatial Representations and the Jacobean Stage: From Shakespeare to Webster. New York: Palgrave.

Gender Studies

The Journal of West University, Timisoara, Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies

Gender Studies
Volume 13: Issue 1

Journal Information

Online ISSN:
2286-0134
First Published:
08 Feb 2013
Language:
English

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