VDM Verlag PLAY'S THE THING: TOM STOPPARD'S "ROSENCRANTZ: REWRITING "HAMLET" IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Tom Stoppard?s interest in Shakespeare is manifest in his many rewritings of "Hamlet," be it in play or on film. This book takes a closer look at Stoppard?s "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" as a rewriting of "Hamlet" in the twentieth century. The analysis of this book probes Stoppard?s cultural, linguistic and thematic rewriting of "Hamlet" by attempting to show how "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern" precedes the theories of postmodernism. The book sets the difference between Stoppard?s postmodern text and Beckett?s "Waiting for Godot" as a late modernist one. In addition to tracing Stoppard?s extensive rewritings of the Shakespearean play and Shakespearean figure in other Stoppardian works, the book focuses on Stoppard?s rewriting of his own rewriting of "Hamlet" when he adapts "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern" to film. This book should be of use to those interested in Stoppard?s rewriting of "Hamlet" as well as in his innovative theater, i.e. in his borrowing and altering techniques and themes from the theaters of Pirandello, Brecht, and Beckett. Language games are highlighted as a particularly postmodern strategy and form of ?play? in Stoppard?s postmodern rewritings of "Hamlet".