Shakespeare and the Present Time

Alicja Helman

Abstract

The text is Alicja Helman’s review of Sylwia Kołos’s book Nowe kino szekspirowskie. Adaptacje sztuk Szekspira w kinie lat dziewięćdziesiątych. [New Shakespearian Cinema. The Adaptations of Shakespe­are’s Plays in the Cinema of the 1990s]. When analysing the adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays on the screen, Kołos encountered a certain problem that can be epitomized in the question: should these films be interpreted as a homogenous set of ”Shakespearian cinema” or rather as a collection of sub-texts which after all do not make up the genre of ”Shakespearian adaptations”? Helman observes that the analysed films form a symbolically selected collection. As a result each adaptation offers a separate research issue; therefore it is difficult to discern any coherent element or find a distinct common determinant. In Helman’s view, Kołos’s methodological approach is justified as the films analysed are 15 various texts and not just one coherent text labelled the ”Shakespearian cinema of the 1990s”. Helman also points out that although the book is based on limitations and selection, it gives a complete picture and the reader puts the book back on the shelf feeling that he/she has learnt all he/she wanted to know and should know about the film adaptations of Shakespeare.