Mariah Price
Dr. Peter Parolin
English Department
Shakespeare in Latin American Cinema
PROPOSED RESEARCH PROJECT
Purpose Statement
William Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted
across cultural and linguistic boundaries, and it
is interesting to notice how they can be made
relevant and accessible to these other cultures.
There are many things that have to change in
order to make the play accessible, like setting,
references, characters, and sometimes the focus
has to gesture toward a highly valued aspect of
the new culture. For this research I will explore
how an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet can
become accessible to another culture even when
the language changes and when the genre
changes from tragedy to parody.
The 1943 Mexican film Romeo y Julieta
parodies William Shakespeare’s original play in
order to comment on Anglo-culture and to show
that Romeo and Juliet is accessible to other
cultures even in the form of comedy. This film is
used as more than a statement on Shakespeare
but as a comment on Latin American culture,
and the ways in which they view themselves in
contrast with American and British culture.
Objectives
Shakespeare has been adapted in order to reach all
kinds of people across the globe. My objective is to
find out why and how Shakespeare is adapted;
furthermore, to understand the way in which
Shakespeare finds his way into Mexico in the
Mexican adaptation of Romeo y Julieta in 1943.
Introduction
Importance of Study
William Shakespeare’s plays have an important role throughout the world. I would
like to study their effects when adapted by and for different cultures. In my
project, I will explore the ways in which Shakespeare can be made accessible to an
audience in a different culture. In studying the phenomenon of intercultural
adaptation of Shakespeare, my project will center around three key texts:
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), George Cukor's Hollywood film
version, Romeo and Juliet (1936), and, crucially, Miguel Delgado's Romeo y
Julieta, scripted by Jaime Salvador (1943). Miguel Delgado’s film is a parody of
both of these previous texts.
With the release of Romeo y Julieta in 1943, something new was being created.
The film makes many changes in order to adapt the classic Romeo and Juliet.
Through changing the language from English to Spanish, and using more slang,
by making the film essentially a play within a play, and making it a comedy the
filmmakers make it more relevant to theiraudience without trying to do an exact
remake of the 1936 Hollywood film . I would like to see how these changes make
a statement about the American and British cultures while creating something new
and original within Latin American culture. This film shows that Latin American
culture could fully understand Shakespeare’s play in such a way as to comment on
it and make it their own comedy.
The importance of this research is to
show how smoothly Shakespeare’s plays,
with an emphasis on Romeo and Juliet,
can be adapted to cinema, crossculturally, to make an entirely new
statement about American and British
society.
Moreover, this project may answer the
question of a culture’s ability to
understand Shakespeare and make one of
his plays their own through the use of
their language
and their different
approaches to Shakespeare from the
dominant modes in the Anglo-American
world.
www.movieposterdb.com/movie/0037232/R
omeo-y-Julieta.html
Methods
My study will be conducted by using the 1943 film of Romeo y Julieta directed by
Jaime Salvador, as well as the 1936 version of Romeo and Juliet and William
Shakespeare’s original play, Romeo and Juliet. I will be looking at the 1943 film in
terms of its use of both of the previous texts. The parody will also be used to
examine the different ways in which it plays with the film (and American culture)
and the text (and British culture). Also, I will use literary and film criticism as well
as adaptation theory to apply a more historical approach in looking at the
questions of cross-cultural Shakespearean adaptations.
http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index5267.html
http://hudsonshakespeare.org/Shakespeare%20Library/Main%20
Pages/main_romeoandjuliet.htm
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Dr. Peter Parolin, the
McNair Scholars Program, as well as Zackie Salmon, Susan
Stoddard.
Another important aspect that I wish to address is
what happens to a story that is written for live
performance in the theatre when it is adapted into a
film. I also want to see how this makes a statement
on Latin American culture as well.
http://www.ahoramismo.com.mx/noticia.aspx?id=25693
http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM418092375-romeo-y-julieta-cantinflas-_JM