Playing with Genre and Form

Abstract

In early modern and Shakespearean academic circles, it is not uncommon for the graphic novel to be viewed with literary scepticism, marking a distinction between high and low art. In part, this is due to the (incorrect) perception that texts in adaptation through graphic novels are inherently less than the original work. This chapter seeks to reconsider the place of graphic novels in adaption by arguing that they are more than simply a stepping-stone to Shakespeare, and instead, are a genre full of rich possibilities when adaptors play with Shakespeare through content and form. Rather than viewing the graphic novel as a mere medium where an author can hypodermically inject high art content, the comic form resists binary division and instead is a self-contained whole where the form informs the content, and vice versa. More specifically, through an examination of The Sandman #19 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this chapter probes the question of how art, especially how the visual nature of comics, can make visible the invisible through adaptation that intersects modality and genre. Neil Gaiman’s adaptation plays with Shakespeare’s play-within-a-play meta-narrative and a (reverentially) irreverent re-imagining of the creation, context, audience, performance, and history of Shakespeare and his play. Through an in-depth examination of comic structure, comic’s performativity, and the cognitive interaction of the audience, the breadth and scope of Gaiman playfulness with history, fact, and truth emerge as a robust contribution to the mythology of Shakespeare as an author, a character, and a historical figure.