Vampire mania has taken over the world. It seems that other supernatural creatures are not far behind them. And all of this is particularly prevalent among the younger, Twilight-adoring, Edward-vs-Jacob crowd (Although perhaps there has always been an allure towards vampires: I will admit, I loved The Lost Boys and Interview with a Vampire in their day. But I digress.). And slowly, our supernatural obsession may be seen taking over past classic works…has anyone yet spotted this new book in their local Barnes & Noble?
This whole craze leads me to wonder how long it will be before Shakespeare is roped into the mania as well. And what form will it take? Much Ado About Werewolves? Twelfth Night of the Living Dead? Romeo and Juliet Eaten by Vicious, Man-Eating Goblins? Or perhaps I’m already behind the times – has anyone already seen such books published?
Which leads me to a final question: How might the craze towards the super-natural be harnessed for the literary forces of good and not evil? How might we, as lovers of Shakespeare, English, and Plain Good Writing use the influence of Twilight to pique our students interest in the works of the Bard? Any ideas?
[…] Sometimes before jumping into the physical art of performance, we like to explore other media with students to expand their discussion of Shakespeare. We’ve mentioned the myriad of ways students approach an Illumination Project in our High School Fellowship Program, shown you examples of “remixing” Shakespeare’s text with audio effects, tried our hand at animating scenes with free online programs, explored the crossover potential of Shakespeare with comics, and considered creative writing projects centered on Shakespeare’s plays (with or without Vampires)… […]
There was a play “Twelfth Night of the Living Dead.” Also, “Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Undead”
Then again, they DO call Shakespeare the IMMORTAL Bard, so who knows what’s possible?
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I should have known! Has anyone read it?
Yes, it has already been done: http://www.amazon.com/Romeo-Juliet-Vampires-William-Shakespeare/dp/0061976245/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285887508&sr=8-1
Caitlin beat me to the Twilightesque R&J cover.
In a related note – a publisher is printing classic literature with new covers, inspired by the covers for ‘Twilight’ in the hopes that students will see the parallels and read on. These books are also featured in the ‘Twilight’ novels as books the characters read or compare themselves to:
http://newmoonblog.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/7/1/147116/6685685.jpg?600×290