In this section of Rogues, Rakes and Rascals you have been exploring how classical texts
are often appropriated, shaped or reinterpreted to capture or comment on a subsequent era
or event. Some exemplars of creative appropriations include; (1) Shakespeare’s The
Taming of the Shrew and Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You, (2) Jane Austin’s
Emma and the comedy smash Clueless, (3) as well as popular musical adaptation West
Side Story and its homage to Romeo and Juliet. In this unit you have also studied the
style, structure and purpose of a persuasive speech.
Your task is to write a persuasive speech in which you agree or disagree with the
following statement made by world renowned theatre director and theorist Peter Brook:
These adaptations merely serve as parasites to ultimately corrupt the integrity of
the original canonical text and show a disdain and disregard for innovative
conceptualisation (Reeves 2005).
Your argument should analyse the dominant discourses and invited readings of the
primary and secondary texts in question, and use this analysis as proof/evidence to
support your point of view. You may use more than one adaptation or a series of
adaptations of the same text to illustrate you argument. Some things you may wish to
focus on could include; the critical reception of both the primary and secondary texts and
why one is revered over the other, the amount of fidelity shown to the original source,
and how the contemporary or transposed version upholds or challenges the themes and
issues of the original work.