Shakespeare and the cinema of excess
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation examines the notion of excess in film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. It takes its critical approach from the work of Georges Bataille, who used "eroticism" to describe a confrontation with excess that destabilises the individual’s sense of identity. Bataille suggests that art can allow audiences to experience a measure of eroticism by presenting subjects that transgress established taboos and by undermining the formal conventions that allow the audience to interpret the text. This dissertation examines these ideas through an analysis of Julie Taymor's Titus and Roman Polanski’s Macbeth from the perspective of Bataille’s writing on transgression, taboos, and excess. By doing a comparative reading of each play and film, I will examine the meaning of excess in these plays and how this has translated to screen...
abstract: This dissertation examines the notion of excess in film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. It takes its critical approach from the work of Georges Bataille, who used "eroticism" to describe a confrontation with excess that destabilises the individual’s sense of identity. Bataille suggests that art can allow audiences to experience a measure of eroticism by presenting subjects that transgress established taboos and by undermining the formal conventions that allow the audience to interpret the text. This dissertation examines these ideas through an analysis of Julie Taymor's Titus and Roman Polanski’s Macbeth from the perspective of Bataille’s writing on transgression, taboos, and excess. By doing a comparative reading of each play and film, I will examine the meaning of excess in these plays and how this has translated to screen...
author: Van Heerden, Jacques
language: eng
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:22Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of English Language and Literature

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11950