Shakespeare for special readers

Abstract

This dissertation analyses some adaptations of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest considering also two special categories of readers: children and inmates. After a brief introduction of Shakespeare’s work and a general overview of the world of adaptations the focus will move to The Tempest adapted for a young audience considering both the past and the present using examples of great authors such as Charles and Mary Lambs, Marcia Williams and Lois Burdett. The importance of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest is based also on the role of a peculiar character of the play: Caliban. For this reason, there will be two chapters on him, the first one about his origins, and the second one about his evolution during the years. The last adaptation taken into consideration as far as the young audience and the character of Caliban are concerned, is Tad Williams’ novel Caliban’s Hour. Moving the focus from the child-reader to the inmate-reader there will be a long chapter which considers novels such as Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, Shakespeare inside by Amy Scott-Douglass and Shakespeare saved my life by Laura Bates, and the documentary of Hank Rogerson Shakespeare Behind Bars