The Females and the Non-Humans in Julie Taymor’sThe Tempest

• Authors: Yukiko Mori
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In Julie Taymor’s film version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2010), Prospero is changed into a female, Prospera. As almost all the original lines and plots are retained, the film would appear to be a ‘straight’ film version of Shakespeare. However, changing the sex of the main character sheds a new light on the original play and proves the film to be an inspiring adaptation. By examining the relationship between the female characters (Prospera, Miranda) and the non-humans (Caliban, Ariel) in the film, this paper will show how deeply sexuality is related to the power struggle and the final reconciliation.

Keywords

EN

adaptation; Julie Taymor; sexuality; The Tempest

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Gender Studies
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-11

Dates

published

2015-12-01

online

2016-02-29

Contributors

author

Yukiko Mori

• Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganeishi, Tokyo 184-0012, Japan

References

• The Tempest. 2010. Directed by Julie Taymor and starring Helen Mirren and Russell Brand. DVD.
• Vaughan, Alden T. & Virginia Mason Vaughan. 1991. Shakespeare’s Caliban: A Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dymkowski, Christine (Ed.). 2000. The Tempest: Shakespeare in Production. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dusinberre, Juliet. 1975. Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the Nature of Women. London: The Macmillan Press.
• Howard, Tony. 2000. “Shakespeare’s cinematic offshoots.” Shakespeare on Film. Russell Jackson (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Rothwell, Kenneth S. 1999. A History of Shakespeare on Screen: A Century of Film and Television. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Shakespeare, William. 2005. The Tempest in The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, second edition. John Jowett, William Montgomery, Gary Taylor, and Stanley Wells (Eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/genst-2016-0001