Revising Shakespeare A Discussion of Three Modern Revisions of Hamlet and The Tempest

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Revisions of Shakespeare, Hamlet, The Tempest, Stoppard, Tom, Morrison, Toni, Updike, John, Postmodern Revision of Shakespeare

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the methods and author approaches of Tom Stoppard, John Updike, and Toni Morrison in their revisions of Hamlet and The Tempest. The three literary works addressed are Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a postmodern revision of Hamlet; Updike's Gertrude and Claudius, a modernist revision of Hamlet; and Morrison's Tar Baby, a postcolonial revision of The Tempest. It concludes that Stoppard uses Hamlet as a vehicle for commentary on the position of characters in a postmodern world. In contrast, Updike seeks to explore the relationships between characters that lead to the events of Hamlet, and finally Morrison blends both Shakespeare's The Tempest and the Br'er Rabbit folk-tale 'Tar Baby' into Tar Baby.

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