<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This article focuses on particular meanings of the term “work,” as related first to the process of adapting Shakespeare and secondly to the ideological and philosophical resonances of this term as employed in the socialist propaganda in East Germany and which Heiner Müller introduces into Shakespeare’s text and gives an ironical twist to. In the first part it points to a few aspects of East German doctrinaire readings of Shakespeare, which were further contested and deconstructed in Müller’s translation cum adaptation. The final part zooms in on the reconfiguring of the established meanings attached to the concept of work in Müller’s rewriting of Macbeth and on the relation between these meanings and the philosophy of history he proposes in his adaptation.</p></abstract>

This article focuses on particular meanings of the term “work,” as related first to the process of adapting Shakespeare and secondly to the ideological and philosophical resonances of this term as employed in the socialist propaganda in East Germany and which Heiner Müller introduces into Shakespeare’s text and gives an ironical twist to. In the first part it points to a few aspects of East German doctrinaire readings of Shakespeare, which were further contested and deconstructed in Müller’s translation cum adaptation. The final part zooms in on the reconfiguring of the established meanings attached to the concept of work in Müller’s rewriting of Macbeth and on the relation between these meanings and the philosophy of history he proposes in his adaptation.

Re-Working Shakespeare: Heiner Müller’s Macbeth

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Re-Working Shakespeare: Heiner Müller\u2019s Macbeth"}

This article focuses on particular meanings of the term “work,” as related first to the process of adapting Shakespeare and secondly to the ideological and...

Re-Working Shakespeare: Heiner Müller’s Macbeth

Published Online: Feb 12, 2016

Page range: 119 - 131

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2015-0010

Keywords
Shakespeare, Heiner Müller, Macbeth, rewriting, Jan Kott, violence, socialist realism, GDR

© ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Re-Working Shakespeare: Heiner Müller’s Macbeth

Published Online: Feb 12, 2016

Page range: 119 - 131

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2015-0010

KeywordsShakespeare, Heiner Müller, Macbeth, rewriting, Jan Kott, violence, socialist realism, GDR

© ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Shakespeare, Heiner Müller, Macbeth, rewriting, Jan Kott, violence, socialist realism, GDR