Abstract
The aim of this paper is to look at the representation of the storm in selected television versions of Shakespeare's The Tempest . Special attention will be paid to Polish TV productions in the context of other film and telegenic renderings of the play. Of course, the specific nature of the tragicomedy and the position of the sea storm and shipwreck in particular will be a starting point for the discussion of how television aesthetics shapes the representation of storms on the small screen. The following questions will be posited: whether the teleplay draws more on the filmic codes or theatre-oriented ones; what the place of television genres is and how they inform the framing of storms; how the genres relate to the nature of the storms in Shakespeare's (Last) plays. Consequently, one needs to address the unnatural, supernatural and oneiric nature of Shakespeare's Last Plays as well as the status of Prospero's art that make the storm a magic phenomenon, yet one which - in the eyes of Miranda as well as the characters aboard the ship - appears a most realistic, indeed tangibly real element. This leads to the problem of realism in the triad of stage-television-film which will need to be addressed, too: how the producers managed to render this double nature of the reception of the storm by the characters in the play.
Published Version
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