『햄릿』 영화들과 정동

Abstract

This essay examines, based on the concept of ‘affect,’ the possibility of different interpretations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and its relation with the reception by the public in each modern period. Analysing three main films of Hamlet, Lawrence Olivier’s Hamlet, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, I will examine how the different manners on affect qualities in these films lead to different interpretation of the main theme of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, i.e. revenge. Briefly, affect can be defined as ‘force’ or ‘forces of encounter.’ From the perspective of affect, revenge is not just revenge, but it is an assembled intensity of various virtual forces. The concept of affect plays a useful compass when we think over the matter of revenge as bundled with punishment, forgiveness and justice. The qualities of the three films could be the result of affect encounters between the text and the public, and such an encounter would also contribute to actualizing virtual affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.