ENGL 299 - Shakespeare Meets Manga

3 Hour(s)

A famous adapter himself, Shakespeare has been adapted and interpreted more often than any other author. Manga adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays are the most recent example of how his use of English language inspires inter-art and inter-textual reconfigurations. The most popular of Shakespeare’s plays, their language, dense visual metaphors, ekphrasis, and character descriptions will be examined as they are transformed into manga images, In turn, manga’s visual, auditory and social conventions will be evaluated as contemporary expression of Elizabethan literary and cultural content. For example, Shakespeare’s use of cross-dressing will be related to Japanese kabuki and Noh traditions of theatrical gender-bending that are ‘reused’ in manga. How manga adaptations differ from and change the original Shakespearean plays in ways that reveal differences between the two cultures will be some of the questions guiding our inquiry into this newest form of Shakespeare adaptations. Foundational knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays will be expected.

General Education Requirements: Writing Intensive