Presentation of Hamlet and Gertrude in Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet

Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

Authority in Crisis? The Dynamic of the Relationship Between Prospero and Miranda in Appropriations of The Tempest

The relationship between Prospero and Miranda is fairly typical for Shakespeare’s way of portraying parental authority and filial obligation. A strong and authoritative father, an absent mother and a (potentially) rebellious daughter are character types reused in many of his plays. In The Tempest, authority, power and ownership, be it political or domestic, are important themes. In criticism, Prospero is frequently discussed through the prism of his attitude to his “subordinates”—Ariel, Caliban and Miranda—and the play’s narrative is interpreted in the context of the theatre of power. Parental authority, a social construct, is a dynamic thing, and the Renaissance patterns discernible in Shakespeare’s plays are refashioned and changed in contemporary adaptations and appropriations of his plays. Informed by New Historicism and Cultural Materialism in relation to gender studies, this article seeks to examine the changing dynamics of the Prospero-Miranda relationship in three films—Derek Jarman’s (1979), Paul Mazursky’s (1982), and Julie Taymor’s (2010)—as well as Philip Osment’s 1988 play This Island’s Mine. Focusing on the issue of authority, power and ownership, the article aims at showing how stereotypical social and gender roles resonate with various political contexts of power

“… the ruins of Europe in back of me.” Jan Klata’s Shakespeare and the European condition

Jan Klata’s Shakespearean productions are famous for his liberal attitude to the text, innovative sets and locations, and a strong contemporary context. His 2004 H., a Teatr Wybrzeże production performed in the Gdańsk Shipyard, reaches to the Polish history of the eighties (the importance of Solidarity and the fall of communism) to comment on the state of the democratic Poland twenty years later. The 2012 Titus Andronicus, a coproduction of Teatr Polski in Wrocław and Staatsschauspiel Dresden, explores the impact of historical traumas on national prejudice and relations within the new Europe. The 2013 Hamlet with Schauspielhaus Bochum again tries to diagnose the contemporary condition and is again deeply rooted in a specific geopolitical context. Discussing both Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, I would like to explore Klata’s formula of working with Shakespeare. Primarily, he takes advantage of the fact that Shakespeare’s texts are not simply source texts but hypertexts with multiple layers of meanings accumulated over the centuries of circulation, production and adaptation. Perhaps similarly to Heiner Müller, whose plays he willingly incorporates in his productions, Klata anatomizes the plays and then radically reconstructs them using other texts, literary and paraliterary. What Klata eventually puts on stage is a hybrid that is rooted in the Shakespearean hypertexts but also heavily draws from historical, cultural and political contexts, and that is relevant to him as the director and to the particular specificities of the venues, theatres and companies he works with. The hybridized and contextualized Shakespeare becomes for Klata a way to comment on current issues that he sees as vital, like dealing with the burden of the past, confronting the reality of the present, or understanding and expressing national identity, problems that are at once universal and specific for a person living in the EU in the twenty first century

Grzegorz Wiśniewski’s Production of Richard III in Teatr Jaracza in Łódź—Textual Authority, the “Director’s Cut”, and Theatre Status

Grzegorz Wiśniewski’s 2012 Richard III in Teatr Jaracza in Łódź was a very successful production with critics and audiences alike. At the 2012 Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival it won the Golden Yorick, a prestigious Polish award for the best staging of a Shakespearean play in the season. Wiśniewski, a renown Polish theatre director and professor at the National Film School in Łódź, has his own way of understanding theatre, its role in culture, and Shakespeare’s place in it. Wiśniewski believes in the theatre of the middle path, as he calls it, that is neither classical/conservative, nor radically avantgarde. He wants to attract wide audiences and offer them intellectual and well-balanced cultural entertainment. Without diminishing the weight of such cultural and literary icons as Shakespeare, he vivisects texts to make productions that can easily speak to a contemporary audience. This paper analyzes Wiśniewski’s Richard III to show how the director manages to achieve balance between his own auteur power, the authority and complexity of Shakespeare’s text, and theatre’s cultural mission

The Subjective Mental Well-Being of School-Age Children – Educational and Prophylactic Challenges

The World Health Organization (WHO) regards the concept of health as individual psychosocial well-being based not only on physical, but psychological, social and environmental factors. Due to the long time spend at school, that context exerts a strong influence on the well-being of children and adolescents and plays an important role in their physical and mental health. Good mental condition in childhood and adolescence is a prerequisite for optimal development, effective learning, the formation of satisfying interpersonal relationships, and for maintaining physical and mental health in adult life. The aim of this paper is to describe the concept of socio-psychological well-being at school and major factors that influence it. Research about well-being of Polish adolescents will also be reviewed. Some preventive and educational implications will be drawn. Childhood and adolescence are crucial periods for the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders. The article is based on the assumption that the school environment is one of the key elements affecting the subjective psychological well-being of pupils. The school context is also necessary for taking appropriate preventive action and support school-age children in developing appropriate competences.The World Health Organization (WHO) regards the concept of health as individual psychosocial well-being based not only on physical, but psychological, social and environmental factors. Due to the long time spend at school, that context exerts a strong influence on the well-being of children and adolescents and plays an important role in their physical and mental health. Good mental condition in childhood and adolescence is a prerequisite for optimal development, effective learning, the formation of satisfying interpersonal relationships, and for maintaining physical and mental health in adult life. The aim of this paper is to describe the concept of socio-psychological well-being at school and major factors that influence it. Research about well-being of Polish adolescents will also be reviewed. Some preventive and educational implications will be drawn. Childhood and adolescence are crucial periods for the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders. The article is based on the assumption that the school environment is one of the key elements affecting the subjective psychological well-being of pupils. The school context is also necessary for taking appropriate preventive action and support school-age children in developing appropriate competence

“I fear I am not in my perfect mind.” Jan Klata’s King Lear and the Crisis of Europe

In his Shakespearean productions Jan Klata tends to radically experiment with sets, texts, and contexts. He puts the plays in culturally and politically specific locations, experiments with bi- or multilingual productions, and incorporates other texts into the Shakespearean frame. In this way, he uses Shakespeare as a means to address contemporary problems and tensions that are vital for his geopolitical reality, exploring the issues of national identities, the cultural legacy of Europe and its nations, as well as past conflicts and present crises. Klata’s King Lear (Narodowy Teatr Stary, Kraków, 2014), set in the religious context of the Catholic Church and using mostly Polish language, with only decorative additions in foreign languages, does not engage in European politics with the same directness and force as his earlier productions. And yet, as I wish to argue, this performance is also strongly concerned with European identity, and may, therefore, be seen as a valid voice in the discussion on how Shakespearean productions help to understand our current-day reality

From Romero to Romeo—Shakespeare’s Star-Crossed Lovers Meeting Zombedy in Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies

Since their first screen appearances in the 1930s, zombies have enjoyed immense cinematic popularity. Defined by Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead as mindless, violent, decaying and infectious, they successfully function as ultimate fiends in horror films. Yet, even those morbid undead started evolving into more appealing, individualized and even sympathetic characters, especially when the comic potential of zombies is explored. To allow a zombie to become a romantic protagonist, however, one that can love and be loved by a human, another evolutionary step had to be taken, one fostered by a literary association.This paper analyzes Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies, a 2013 film adaptation of Isaac Marion’s zombie novel inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It examines how Shakespeare’s Romeo helps transform the already evolved cinematic zombie into a romantic protagonist, and how Shakespearean love tragedy, with its rich visual cinematic legacy, can successfully locate a zombie narrative in the romantic comedy convention. Presenting the case of Shakespeare intersecting the zombie horror tradition, this paper illustrates the synergic exchanges of literary icons and the cinematic monstrous

Satisfaction with Life in Old Age – the Role of Developmental Tasks Attainment and Resiliency

The late adulthood period is full of challenges which endanger the well-being of an individual and require adaptation. Personal factors such as resiliency and the attainment of developmental tasks typical for the age period play therefore key roles in achieving life satisfaction in old age. The aim of the present study was to determine the roles of resiliency and developmental task attainment in achieving satisfaction with life in old age. One hundred participants of Senior Clubs in their late adulthood, 49 men and 51 women (age range 60-88 years; M = 70.57, SD = 6.71) were surveyed using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Resiliency Measurement Scale (SPP-25) and Developmental Tasks Questionnaire for Seniors (KZR-S).The relationships between variables were determined by correlation, regression analysis and structural equation modeling. The analyses revealed significant relationships between variables. Greater overall resiliency and higher levels of developmental task attainment were associated with greater satisfaction with life, as declared by the respondents. The most significant ones seem to be determination and persistence in action (resiliency factor) and acceptance of one’s life: components of developmental task attainment.Both resiliency and developmental task attainment have a positive impact on the life satisfaction of older people. Greater importance should be attributed to resiliency