The Bard's Song across the Centuries: political and social transformation from the play to the new media

Even if Shakespeare's life is surrounded by mystery, his plays are well known and many scholars, writers, and directors are interested in studying them. Starting from the political and social background of the Elizabethan Age and the analysis of three original plays, I tried to show the evolution of their adaptations in the 20th and 21st centuries, focusing my attention on the political and social changes that have occurred in the meantime. I availed myself of critical sources such as Tillyard's masterpiece The Elizabethan World Picture and some essays dealing with new trends in Shakespeare studies: cultural materialism and new historicism. The three selected plays (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Richard III) are analysed in their adaptations through three different media (film, anime and manga). Shakespeare's texts have undergone considerable changes in these works, partly due to their interpretations in new political and social contexts, which are the main object of my attention, and the public they address. In particular, I underlined how some issues such as mafia, dictatorships, and new technologies enter the new adaptations of the plays. Nowadays the re-readings of Shakespeare's works are numerous and it is probable that the Bard's song will still be used to convey the issues of the future.