"That´s What I Like about Shakespeare; It´s the Pictures": A Teaching-Oriented Approach to Shakespearean Textual Analysis through Film (with Special Reference to Macbeth V.5.15-28).

Abstract

Following some current trends in teaching both Shakespeare (Hutchings 2012) and Shakespeare through film (e.g. Bueno 2004, Castaldo 2002, Crowl 2008, Deitchman 2002), the aim of this note is to present a practical in-class example of teaching textual analysis through film, which derives from my own experience of teaching a Shakespeare on/through Film and the Arts seminar for more than a decade. As a methodological case-study that might be adapted by other instructors, I will elaborate my point by discussing the textual intricacies of Macbeth v.5.15-28 and their filmic translation as done by Orson Welles (1948), Roman Polanski (1971), Trevor Nunn (1979) and Rupert Goold (2010) in an effort to highlight the importance of teaching how competent visual texts that offer the “reel” Shakespeare (Lehmann & Starks 2002) have to be based on an understanding of the textual “real” Shakespeare.