The Reversion Of Mass Culture

William Shakespeare's works have been viewed as literature classics and elite culture. For more than one hundred years, Shakespeare's plays have been continually adapted into films, appearing in the face of the masses through the typical form of mass culture. The cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's plays has become an important part of Shakespearian study. In fact, the relationship between a classical literary work and its adapted films reflects the filmmaker's choice between elite culture and mass culture. The tendency towards the fusion of elite culture and mass culture appears in the films based on Shakespeare's plays. The thesis, in light of mass culture theory, is to analyze the mass culture features of the cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's plays as well as its influences on Shakespeare's original plays, and to discuss the way for literature classics to survive in the visual age nowadays.The thesis consists of five parts.The introduction mainly presents the research on Shakespeare's plays and their cinematic adaptation as well as the development process of mass culture theory. This part also states the writing perspective and purpose of the thesis.Chapter One reviews the three main phases that Shakespeare's plays have undergone in the aspect of cultural position. In Elizabethan Age, drama was a mass entertainment pattern that fell into the category of mass culture. Most of Shakespeare's mass audiences were middle and lower classes such as craftsmen, apprentices, workers, merchants, etc. Meanwhile, Shakespeare's plays were also liked by the upper class, thus they were indeed an art satisfying both the refined and popular tastes. During the centuries after Shakespeare's death, the value of his works has been constantly explored by critics, and the approval of cultural authorities has been gained. Shakespeare's dominant position in literature and culture has been established. His plays have been viewed as literature and art classics and brought into elite culture, keeping far away from the masses at the same time. Since the emergence of the film industry at the end of the nineteenth century, Shakespeare's plays have returned to ordinary people through screen, as mass culture.Chapter Two analyzes the mass culture features of the films adapted from Shakespeare's plays, such as commerciality, popularity, entertainment, plurality, and postmodernity. As the products with both artistic and commercial natures, the films based on Shakespeare's plays contain a lot of entertainment elements and employ streamlined production. Due to the conflict between the visual expression of film and the verbal expression of literature, the treatment of language becomes the primary issue in the cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's plays. The dialogue in Shakespeare's plays is usually cut off in part or changed into modern English to facilitate the understanding of the masses. Postmodern adaptation is inclined to abandon the fidelity to the original, resulting in playful, deconstructive and subverting adaptations by changing the background, altering the characters, abandoning the dialogue, and updating the motif. In general, a trend from faithful to free adaptation is shown in the cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's plays.Chapter Three discusses the influence of the cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's plays. The gains and losses are natural, for adaptation involves a transfer between two different media. As an inevitable topic in the cinematic adaptation of literary works,"fidelity"reveals the choice of the filmmaker between the verbal and the visual, between art and commerce, and between elite culture and mass culture. Excess visual means or entertainment elements in adapting films will damage the poetic trait of Shakespeare. In postmodern context, immoderate arbitrariness in adaptation may cause the loss of part of the spirit and uniqueness of Shakespeare's original. However, thanks to the multi-track nature of film, the gaps in the original plays can be filled through the comprehensive action of multiple elements such as image, sound, lighting, and performance. Furthermore, film helps to promote the exploration of the parts of Shakespeare which have not been found out yet, and provides new research angles and critical angles for Shakespearian study. Most important of all, Shakespearian films, no matter they are successful or not, have fused the elite culture of Shakespearian art and the mass culture of cinematic expression, objectively popularizing Shakespeare's plays and making Shakespeare return to the masses.The conclusion restates the significance of the cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's plays. As the representative of elite culture, the cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare plays provides lessons for literature classics to survive in the visual age at present. Cinematic adaptation is an effective measure to give classical works contemporary significance. Shakespeare continues to"belong to all time"in virtue of Shakespearian films.