| This project is a study of Shakespeare in Russia and the Soviet Union that pays special attention to the works of scholar, filmmaker and theater practitioner Grigory Kozintsev. The central purpose of this investigation is to present a narrative of the role of Shakespeare in Russian and Soviet arts and letters from the 18th to 20th centuries, which emphasizes the ways in which artists, translators and critics have used Shakespeare's plays as a means of responding to their cultural and political situations, often in a critical or subversive manner. Kozintsev's theatrical and film versions of Hamlet and King Lear, as well as his books on Shakespeare, use the plays' themes and imagery to comment upon the negative effects of Stalinist tyranny and other pressing problems in Soviet life, which could not be spoken about explicitly in a public forum for risk of censure, imprisonment, exile and even death. Shakespeare's works provided a "screen" from Tsarist or Party censorship, enabling artists to allude covertly to contemporary troubles that would have otherwise been forbidden topics. |
