Twentieth-Century Adaptations of «Macbeth»

The book traces individuals’ adaptive interventions in the cultural sphere. More specifically, it investigates the purposes of dramatic adapting, which is basically regarded as a political activity. Following the intense micropolitical combat of an author with the precursor Shakespeare, adaptation becomes comprehensible as part of the ceaseless motions of macrocultural change. At each adaptation’s centre, an individual subject’s identity act encounters external discourses, and these transform each other and destabilise ideologies. Moreover, they lay siege to the cultural powerhouse Shakespeare. The book thus explores adapters’ revolt against the loop of eternal repetition, which is created by canonic forces. In order to do so, the author uses an innovative combination of standard theories.

Sven Rank graduated from the University of Wales (Swansea) and received his postgraduate education at the University of Bayreuth, where he completed his PhD in 2009. He has worked as a translator and proofreader and is currently employed in the research management department of the University of Münster.

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