Shakespeare in Love (1998): Renaissance Playwright Shakespeare Adapted to a Hollywood Auteur in Reader’s Imagination

Abstract

William Shakespeare is one of the best-known authors in the world, yet, his authorship has been continually questioned since the Victorian period. The Shakespeare authorship question is mainly influenced by the romantic notion of the author, who was later sentenced to death by the poststructuralists like Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. With the death of the author, the importance of the recipient has been acknowledged, and postmodern adaptation has been found in wide applications. Since then, the former recipient has become the author while adapting original texts. In the new millennium, the postmodern adaptation of Shakespeare has been booming particularly in Asian Shakespeare reception. In this context, it is significant that creating the Bard on-screen was also attempted right before the new millennium. Shakespeare in Love (1998) is a romantic comedy, which depicts Shakespeare’s imaginary love affair. In the center of the film, there is Romeo and Juliet (1597), one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays during his lifetime. The film portrays his love affair while he was writing Romeo and Juliet. As a result, the playwriting intertwined with his love affair, and this is exactly what the audience wants to see the author of Romeo and Juliet on screen. Along with numerous accolades, the positive reviews from critics as well as the box office success confirmed it. This paper elucidates that the Renaissance English theatre man Shakespeare has been adapted to a Hollywood auteur in the late capitalism in Shakespeare in Love. This occurs in two levels; in the diegetic world of the movie, Viola—corresponding to Juliet in Shakespeare’s play—embodies the ideal reader who loves Shakespeare’s works passionately and further, inspires Will to continue to write and makes him a free writer in the end. In the extradiegetic world, since the makers of this movie are Shakespeare lovers like Viola, they have parodied Shakespeare’s life and used pastiche with his oeuvre and thus, created an intimate and charming Shakespeare on screen. This created Shakespeare is attributed more with the characteristics of the auteur, and this postmodern adaptation contributes to an expanded understanding of Shakespeare’s story world.