Orson Welles' intermedial versions of Shakespeare in theatre, radio and film

In addition to being a keyfigure in the history of filmmaking, Orson Welles was an original theatre director and radio performer and producer. The aim of this thesis is to study Welles' achievements and failures in theatre, radio and film, as well as comparing his craft and techniques in each medium during his early career. Welles' adaptations of Shakespeare will provide the guiding thread of this intermedial exploration. Close reading of these texts will show the recurrence of intermediality in Welles' work, namely, the way techniques from one medium feed into the other two. Borrowing conventions and devices that are proper to other media and importing them into a target medium is his basic innovative strategy. This use of intermediality brings about innovative effects that favour agile and gripping storytelling, though it can also hamper the understanding of the piece.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Comparative Media Studies.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Fernández-Vara, Clara

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter S. Donaldson.

• Comparative Media Studies.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44294

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44294