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The ‘Canon’ of the Animated Tales from Shakespeare and Julius Caesar by Dr Maddalena Pennacchia (Roma Tre University) A joint Theatre and Media Drama Research Unit and Centre for the Study of Media and Cultures in Small Nations seminar 2 March 2.30 to 4pm ATRiuM, University of Glamorgan Cinema (CB205) The Animated Tales from Shakespeare is a British-Russian TV series, a project started in 1991 by BBC Wales in association with the Soyuzmultfilms Studios in Moscow. These “condensed animated adaptations of plays by William Shakespeare” (IMDB) were conceived both with an artistic and a didactic aim (as is clear from the title which quotes Charles and Mary Lamb’s narrative adaptations) and mainly (but not exclusively) addressed to a global audience of children and young adults. The scripts were adapted by the distinguished British writer of children’s literature Leon Garfield, the celebrated author of Shakespeare Stories I and II (1985, 1994), a book which updated the Lambs’ experiment. The project enjoyed such critical acclaim that two series were produced, the first broadcasted in 1992 and the second in 1994. As it happens, the plays chosen by the producers have come to form a new ‘Shakespeare Canon for Children’. This is confirmed by their arrangement in the DVD Box set that now collects them, a didactic tool which is very much in use in primary and secondary British schools. In the DVD Box set the plays are grouped together in three separate discs following not their chronological order of production or their different artistic techniques, but according to a principle of imitation of the First Folio’s division in Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. After dealing with some of the intermedial and intercultural aspects of the Animated Tales as a ‘Canon’, I will focus on the place that one specific ‘history’ finds within it, a ‘history’ which seems to me of paramount interest when the transmission of crucial elements of the European cultural heritage are at stake: namely Julius Caesar, a text that is sometimes presented to young students as an introduction to ‘Ancient Rome’. The most striking technical aspect of the animated Julius Caesar, directed by Yuri Kulakov, is that it seems a ‘parody’ (Hutcheon) of a previous adaptation, namely Mankiewicz’s Hollywood version of the play (1953). If the title character, Julius Caesar, is already a controversial figure in Shakespeare’s tragedy (his heroic status being radically questioned in the play), Mankiewicz erases his ambiguity transforming him into a thoroughly mean and negative character, who becomes totally eclipsed by Brutus’s political and moral stature. Mankiewicz’s Brutus is, quite anacronistically, the defender of the (American) sacred values of democracy. On the contrary, Kulakov’s Russian cel animation seems to show a surprising fascination with Caesar, a fascination which is articulated through a network of recurring images that seem to subvert Mankiewicz’s adaptation from within. The aim of my paper is, ultimately, to show how adaptations of adult texts for children cannot be considered as simple ‘user friendly’ devices. Teaching strategies and methodologies should be elaborated in order to enhance the young audience’s understanding of the complexities of such products. ALL WELCOME! Dr Márta Minier Lecturer in Drama ATRiuM University of Glamorgan 86-88 Adam Street Cardiff CF24 2FN UK Tel.: (0044) 1443 668548 -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. Membership is open to all who teach and research these subjects in HE institutions, via either institutional or individual membership. The field includes film and TV production, journalism, radio, photography, creative writing, publishing, interactive media and the web; and it includes higher education for media practice as well as for media studies. This mailing list is a free service from MeCCSA and is not restricted to members. For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------