Abstract
In televisual representations of William Shakespeare’s life which blend biographical fact with fictionalised fantasy, contemporary writers often utilise the trope of the playwright colliding with characters and scenes recognisable from plays which he has yet to create and, consequently, finding inspiration. Others construct a reciprocal loop of influence, whereby Shakespeare is shown to have written or been informed by works that did not exist during his lifetime and which his plays themselves instigated. It has become fashionable in the metamodern era to depict these forms of metaphorical cannibalism in a parodic manner which oscillates between sarcastic rejection of Bardolatry and sincere appreciation for Shakespeare’s ‘genius’. Gareth Roberts satirised the notion of Shakespeare’s originality in Doctor Who episode The Shakespeare Code (2007), through the depiction of the playwright being fed and consuming his own works and specific references. In 2016, the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death, a number of commemorative BBC programmes also exhibited cannibalistic features, including the reverent (The Hollow Crown), the irreverent (Cunk on Shakespeare), and those which combined both registers (Upstart Crow). I will explore how these writers construct their portrayals of Shakespeare and, by interlacing fact and fiction, what portrait of the playwright these cannibalistic representations produce.
Highlights
Jones suggests that ‘Shakespeare is here portrayed as a potential plagiarist, scavenging for inspiration at all times’ (Jones, 2015) and, with this quip, Doctor Who returns to the point that Shakespeare was ‘not the “original”, but rather a culturally big link in a chain of narratives’ (Hansen and Wetmore, Jr., 2015: 20) and destabilises ideas of cultural hierarchy and precedence in order to emphasise the role of the playwright as both borrower and lender
The ‘double time’ (Wardle, 2018: 2) of Shakespeare inhabiting both past and present becomes more prevalent once the celebratory context in which Upstart Crow and Cunk on Shakespeare were conceived and broadcast is taken into consideration: the quatercentenary of Shakespeare’s death
In 2016, the BBC broadcast a number of Shakespeare-themed dramas, comedies, documentaries and live performances to commemorate this anniversary
Summary
Televisual representations of Shakespeare’s life which blend biographical fact with fictionalised fantasy, such as The Shakespeare Code, often utilise the trope of the playwright colliding with characters, scenes and phrases recognisable from plays which he has yet to create and, finding creative stimulation. The origin story for Macbeth and Dream, both of which contain prominent examples of Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural, are represented by depicting the playwright encountering real magic, which constructs the idea in the viewer’s mind that Shakespeare’s ‘greatness’ sprang from a connection to otherworldly forces unavailable to an ‘ordinary’ writer It has become fashionable in the ‘metamodern’ era to depict these forms of metaphorical cannibalism in a parodic manner which swings between sarcastic rejection of Bardolatry and sincere appreciation for Shakespeare’s ‘genius’. Turner is describing Millennials and the increasing tendency for contemporary artists to produce work that rejects outright sarcasm in favour of art which metatextually acknowledges the irony inherent in its own plot, setting or process of adaptation, whilst attempting to reach a level of sincerity with which its audience can identify, and thereby gain a greater understanding of their personal identity and issues within the wider world.i In the two primary instances of biographical fiction which this article discusses, Upstart Crow and The Shakespeare Code, the writers’ responses to Shakespeare as a literary icon veer from a parodic register – which attempts to render the playwright relatable and human through the reveal and explanation of his artistic process as banal, coincidental or lucky – to a more reverential attitude that reaffirms his status as an unparalleled literary force
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