The Reworking of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Arab Spring: The Hero Hamlet as a Symbol for the Arab Youths

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the theme of heroism in four reworkings of Shakespeare’s Hamlet produced in the early period of the Arab Spring. It briefly traces how Hamlet is dramatized as a hero in Hayder Abdullah AL-Shatery’s In Waiting for Hamlet as a rewriting In Iraq, Mohammad Farouq ‘s Goodbye Hamlet and Hani Affefi’s I’m Hamlet as stage Adaptations in Egypt, and Urwa Al-Araby’s The Syrian Hamlet as stage adaptations in Syria. The study then analyses how the four plays were impacted by the sense of political hope and heroism that accompanied the Arab uprisings and seen in the Arab youths fighting their oppressive regimes for political change. The study gives a brief overview of the political situation in the region after 2010. Then, it reads the four plays in the scope of the political optimism in the four Arab countries. Finally, it intends to highlight how the Arab Hamlets are meant to be dramatic icons and symbols for the brave Arab revolutionaries fighting to achieve justice.