Event Details:

Hosted by the Asian Studies Center and the Visiting International Professional Program and co-sponsored by MSU Film Studies and the Department of English, this event will explore Shakespearean Film Adaptations from Thailand, Malaysia, and South India. Drawing on theories of the encounter developed in intercultural criticism, philosophy and peace and conflict studies, this talk examines Asian adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays as sites of encounter. It introduces a number of neglected recent cinematic treatments of Shakespeare from different parts of Asia at the same time as it tests the potential of new methodological paradigms. Concentrating on adaptations of Macbeth and Othello, the talk argues that, via the encounter between the play and the director, questions around difference and alterity, the operations of the state and the lures of globality are highlighted, showcasing Shakespeare’s continuing instrumentality and relevancies.

Speaker: Professor Mark Thornton Burnett, Queen's University Belfast

Mark Thornton Burnett is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. He is also a Fellow of the English Association and Member of the Royal Irish Academy. Widely published, he has made important contributions to the burgeoning field of World Cinema and Shakespeare, with an emphasis on Shakespeare in South and East Asia, as in such authored studies as: Filming Shakespeare in the Global Marketplace (Palgrave, 2007; 2nd ed. 2013), Shakespeare and World Cinema (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and ‘Hamlet’ and World Cinema (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Most recently, he co-edited the collection, Women and Indian Shakespeares (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).