Macbeth

La vie humaine commence de l’autre côté du désespoir. La lezione di Macbeth ne Les Mouches

by Fabio Battista

published in 'Laboratorio Critico' 2012, 1 (2), pp. 1-9

Shakespeare's Macbeth

by Michael Saenger

Macbeth (1978).

by Jennifer Drouin

Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. Ed. Daniel Fischlin. 2007. 6 pp.

-S-h-a-k-e-s-p-e-a-r-e-: Authorial Self-Erasure in Macbeth

by Étienne Poulard

This unpublished article is based on a paper I gave at the ‘Medieval and Early Modern Authorship’ conference at the University of Geneva (June/July 2010).

'Macbeth' is Shakespeare’s most explicitly Jacobean play; and because of that, it is often treated as evidence of the... more 'Macbeth' is Shakespeare’s most explicitly Jacobean play; and because of that, it is often treated as evidence of the playwright’s unreserved dedication to the monarchy. However, the authorial mode of this play is far less determined than is sometimes suggested. The fact that 'Macbeth' can be read both as a legitimation and a criticism of King James’ regime suggests that the “author’s drift” resists univocal categorisation. This article examines the characteristic undecidability of Shakespeare’s authorship in 'Macbeth'. By informing each other, references to Baroque art and contemporary theory shed a new light on the play. Thus, Velázquez’s painting, Las Meninas, illustrates Michel Foucault’s suggestion that “visibility is a trap.” In turn, this cross-fertilisation helps us conceptualise the regime of authorial paranoia that characterises 'Macbeth' and introduces the possibility that Shakespeare maintained his freedom of expression by remaining invisible. Because the reasons for such a vanishing act and the dramatic strategies used by the playwright to achieve it remain unclear, the article sets out to investigate these issues.

« FAUSTUS, THE LAST NIGHT », Pascal Dusapin O LENTE, LENTE CURRITE NOCTIS EQUI LES CHEVAUX DE LA NUIT COURENT TRÈS LENTEMENT

by Jacques Coulardeau

Le Docteur Faust original de « Historie und Geschichte des Doktor Johannes Faust » (Historia vnd Geschicht Doctor Johannis Faustj) prêche une vérité posée comme divine et simple à comprendre même si plus difficile à accepter qui pose le Docteur Faust au même rang que les Juifs et les Turcs : « My Fauste, […] The Jews and the Turks must also die expecting the same perdition as thou. » Marlowe supprimera la référence à l’usurier juif de l’original tout en gardant la perte magique d’une jambe par Faust, donnée en gage à l’usurier juif dans l’original et que Marlowe déplace dans un contexte non religieux.

Nous étions partis de la vérité de Marlowe dans l’opéra de Dusapin. Mais nous sommes allés beaucoup plus loin. Le... more Nous étions partis de la vérité de Marlowe dans l’opéra de Dusapin. Mais nous sommes allés beaucoup plus loin. Le savoir de ces hommes est dérisoire qui se satisfont de toute façon d’une tautologie. Quand la mort de Faustus est consumée, il ne reste plus aucune vérité car c’est en définitive l’homme qui fait la vérité. Le robot de cuisine s’arrête, le temps s’arrête, les planètes s’arrêtent, le monde est vide et il n’y a aucune possibilité de salut. Togod est peut-être Dieu mais est aussi peut-être Lucifer et sa vérité est un catéchisme à répéter tout au long de la vie, mais pas au-delà. Sly n’est qu’un pickpocket existentiel sans la moindre profondeur : un jouisseur de l’instant immédiat. L’Ange est aveugle et ne voit que ce que son pauvre cerveau lui permet d’imaginer. Mephistopheles est le prestidigitateur de la pièce et Faustus est mort. Il ne nous reste plus que les yeux pour pleurer, si ces yeux ne sont pas une illusion d’optique. Voilà la simple vérité shakespearienne : « Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / and then is heard no more : it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing. » (Macbeth, V,v, 24-28)

Macbeth: Culturas populares y fandom

by Javier Lozano Delmar

Co-authored with Alberto Hermida, published in Comunicación, nº5, 2007.

Las culturas populares son el reflejo de la sociedad y de su evolución. Mediante éstas, se conserva y se transmite la... more Las culturas populares son el reflejo de la sociedad y de su evolución. Mediante éstas, se conserva y se transmite la tradición entre generaciones, adaptándose al presente y a sus nuevas formas culturales. En la actualidad, en una época de constantes avances tecnológicos y tomando Macbeth, de Shakespeare, como obra representativa, el ciberespacio y los nuevos formatos aparecen como el contexto idóneo para dicha tarea comunitaria.

Cathartic Violence. Lady Macbeth and Feminine Power in Roman Polanski's Macbeth

by Oana Gheorghiu

Based upon a controversial rendition of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, i.e., Roman Polanski's The Tragedy of Macbeth,... more Based upon a controversial rendition of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, i.e., Roman Polanski's The Tragedy of Macbeth, 1971, this paper aims primarily at contextualizing the cinematographic production in the time and spatial frame of the late 60's - early 70's cultural, political and mindset background, and secondarily at drawing a parallel between the Shakespearean text and its reinterpretations in the aforementioned production. As stated in the title, the focus is not upon the supernatural in Macbeth, the paper dealing mainly with the extreme violence of the production, and with the Polanskian perspective upon Lady Macbeth's character.
        The paper tackles controversial issues related to the various meanings of Shakespeare's Macbeth that literary criticism has insisted upon, the art of adapting literature for the screen and, within a wider frame, cultural dynamics. Since Macbeth, the play, allows psychoanalytical and feminist readings next to other numerous interpretations (archetypal criticism included), the conceptual apparatus of these critical approaches is also applied for the investigation of the filmic text, focusing upon a series of elements concerning mainly the characters of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth himself and the three witches, as represented in the film, stressing the hypostases of feminine power over the weaker male.
        The analysis of the film has partly relied on psychoanalytical criticism. The conclusions drawn in this respect have been based, more often than not, on arguing and refuting psychoanalytical insights into the filmic text. On the other hand, another set of critical instruments has been provided by feminist criticism, resorted to less to prove the alleged misogyny of the play a valid accusation and rather to use its specific concepts to demonstrate that Lady Macbeth is the voiced part in the masculine/feminine dichotomy and not the other way round, as feminists arguing against patriarchal literature would claim. In addition, where necessary, the Shakespearean text has been reconsidered in critical terms, and recourse to historical sources (Holinshed's Chronicles) has been made to support the conclusions drawn by the feminist interpretation.

Metafiction and Architextual Translation: from Macbeth to Scotland PA

by Oana Gheorghiu

This paper deals with a filmic production having little to do with the Shakespearean text of Macbeth, which... more This paper deals with a filmic production having little to do with the Shakespearean text of Macbeth, which constitutes, more or less, only a starting point for bringing contemporary issues at the table. The film analysed is an independent production, low-budgeted and lesser (or not at all) interested in the postmodern shortcoming of society that is consumerism, although, looking superficially at Scotland PA, a ‘Macbeth at MacDonald’s’, one can be driven to this conclusion. The revision is an original piece of adaptation which brings forth the known issues of Macbeth, ambition, equivocation, gender power, good and evil, and punishment of the wrong-doer in unexpected manners, relying on Shakespeare only as much as to produce a coherent storyline.
Key words: adaptation, architextuality, parody, metafiction

Doubling, mythic difference, and the scapegoating of female power in Macbeth

by Dianne Hunter

"Macbeth and the Political Uncanny in The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates"

by Gregory Foran

Milton Studies 51 (2010): 1-20.

Milton's allusions to Macbeth in The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) register his encounter with the political... more Milton's allusions to Macbeth in The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) register his encounter with the political uncanny. In the tract, When Milton insists that the people may depose their king at will, and that in every way except physically, King Charles is already dead, he leaves the essential structure of sovereignty intact. Charles Stuart is demoted to the status of homo sacer--the paradigmatic figure of bare life abandoned by law who stands as the sovereign‘s doppelgänger--while the people are invested with sovereign power over life and death. Thus, the Tenure conjures the same specter of a dead king walking that it had sought to vanquish, and when eleventh-hour Presbyterian remorse threatens to revive Charles from symbolic death, Milton‘s outrage finds a paradigm in Macbeth‘s horror at the ghost of Banquo.

La Historia Social en Macbeth

by Ángela Almela

Published in La Literatura en la Historia y la Historia en la Literatura: in honorem Francisco Flores Arroyuelo.

Review of Shakespeare’s 'Macbeth' (directed by Declan Donnellan for Cheek by Jowl) at the Silk Street Theatre, Barbican Centre, London, 10 April 2010

by Étienne Poulard

This review has been published in 'Shakespeare' © 2011 Copyright Taylor & Francis; 'Shakespeare' is available online at:
http://www.informaworld.com/1745-0918

'This was a stripped-down, prop-free "Macbeth" with no witches, no cauldrons, no murderers, no daggers, no... more 'This was a stripped-down, prop-free "Macbeth" with no witches, no cauldrons, no murderers, no daggers, no blood and no fateful letters - no visible ones at least...'

Los rasgos barrocos en Shakespeare

by Gisele Amaya Dal Bó

En este trabajo se analizará en Shakespeare, sobre todo a partir de King Lear, aquellos rasgos que lo acercan al... more En este trabajo se analizará en Shakespeare, sobre todo a partir de King Lear, aquellos rasgos que lo acercan al movimiento barroco -y su posible explicación desde el contexto histórico-, por comparación con los dramaturgos españoles y a partir de la conceptualización de Emilio Carilla sobre el estilo artístico. Desde Carilla, se prestará atención especialmente al desengaño, la quinta característica que el crítico argentino reconoce en el movimiento, para explicar cómo se manifiesta el "pesimismo" shakesperiano en las grandes tragedias del dramaturgo isabelino: "Hamlet", "Othello", "Macbeth" y, especialmente, "King Lear".

‘I have to change myself instead of interpreting myself.’ Heiner Müller as Post-Brechtian Director‘, Contemporary Theatre Review, 20:1 (2010), pp. 6-20

by David Barnett

An examination of Müller's practices as a director of his own plays Macbeth and Der Lohndrücker. Also an attempt to... more An examination of Müller's practices as a director of his own plays Macbeth and Der Lohndrücker. Also an attempt to approach the category of the post-Brechtian through practice.

Macbeth: An Interpretation in the Light of Indian Idea of Kingship

by Susheel Sharma

Vinod Kumar Singh, Research Scholar, Dept of of English, University of Allahabad, Allahabad-211002, India 

Susheel Kumar Sharma, Professor of English, University of Allahabad, Allahabad-211002, India
Vinod Kumar... more
Susheel Kumar Sharma, Professor of English, University of Allahabad, Allahabad-211002, India
Vinod Kumar Singh, Research Scholar, Dept of of English, University of Allahabad, Allahabad-211002, India 

ABSTRACT
Macbeth has been interpreted by the western critics like A. C. Bradley, G. Wilson Knight, J. Middlton Murrey, Mary McCarthy, D. J. Enright and E. M. W. Tillyard. A. C. Bradley reads Macbeth as tragedy of “over ambitiousness”. G. W. Knight compares “[t]he soul experience of Brutus with Macbeth”. J. Middlton Murrey senses Macbeth’s “new and terrible realm of experience”. Mary McCarthy depicts Macbeth as the “trepident executive … modern and bourgeois”. D. J. Enright sees him as a prototype of the “hen-packed husband”. And, E. M. W. Tillyard finds it as “the epilogue of the Histories”. However, the Indian Critics like K. R. S. Srinivas Iyanger and K. G. Pandit have also tried to interpret Macbeth but their criticism is more or less an extension and explication of the existing Western Shakespearean Criticism.
Macbeth, the shortest but the most powerful Shakespearean Tragedy, raises some important questions about kingship like: how should a king behave; who is eligible to become a king; how much credence should he give to his near and dear ones; what measures should be adapted for a king’s safety; how to acquire a throne and once acquired how to carry out one’s duties?
All these questions have to be answered by an Indian critic in a different way than a western one because the Indian conception of a king is not only a developed one but also a significantly different from that of the westerners. The Indian concept of king and kingship is found in texts like the Manusmriti, the Arthashastra, the Sukranitisara, and the Mahabharata. In the light of this conception an analysis of kings as they figure in Macbeth will be made. This approach will help us in understanding Duncan, Macbeth and Malcolm in different light but will also help us in understanding Shakespeare’s concept of kingship.

Macbeth: An Interpretation in the Light of Indian Idea of Kingship

by Susheel Sharma

‘Macbeth: An Interpretation in the Light of Indian Idea of Kingship’, The Atlantic Critical Review, IX, 3(July - September 2010), pp. 23-37. (Co-author: Vinod Kumar Singh)

ABSTRACT
Macbeth has been interpreted by the western critics like A. C. Bradley, G. Wilson Knight, J.... more
ABSTRACT
Macbeth has been interpreted by the western critics like A. C. Bradley, G. Wilson Knight, J. Middlton Murrey, Mary McCarthy, D. J. Enright and E. M. W. Tillyard. A. C. Bradley reads Macbeth as tragedy of “over ambitiousness”. G. W. Knight compares “[t]he soul experience of Brutus with Macbeth”. J. Middlton Murrey senses Macbeth’s “new and terrible realm of experience”. Mary McCarthy depicts Macbeth as the “trepident executive … modern and bourgeois”. D. J. Enright sees him as a prototype of the “hen-packed husband”. And, E. M. W. Tillyard finds it as “the epilogue of the Histories”. However, the Indian Critics like K. R. S. Srinivas Iyanger and K. G. Pandit have also tried to interpret Macbeth but their criticism is more or less an extension and explication of the existing Western Shakespearean Criticism.
Macbeth, the shortest but the most powerful Shakespearean Tragedy, raises some important questions about kingship like: how should a king behave; who is eligible to become a king; how much credence should he give to his near and dear ones; what measures should be adapted for a king’s safety; how to acquire a throne and once acquired how to carry out one’s duties?
All these questions have to be answered by an Indian critic in a different way than a western one because the Indian conception of a king is not only a developed one but also a significantly different from that of the westerners. The Indian concept of king and kingship is found in texts like the Manusmriti, the Arthashastra, the Sukranitisara, and the Mahabharata. In the light of this conception an analysis of kings as they figure in Macbeth will be made. This approach will help us in understanding Duncan, Macbeth and Malcolm in different light but will also help us in understanding Shakespeare’s concept of kingship.

Macbeth: A Defence of King James I

by Brahma Dutta Sharma

Brahma Dutta Sharma, Macbeth: A Defence of King James I, Punjab Journal of English Studies, VIII(1993), pp. 1-5.

‘Il Noh come espressione dell’universalità delle culture: Akira Kurosawa e William Shakespeare’. Quaderni Asiatici 77 (2007) 63-90

by Diego Pellecchia