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Join the UMD Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies for the 2024 Jankofsky Lecture. Prof. Courtney Lehmann will explore how women filmmakers have interpreted Shakespeare through the example of director Deepa Mehta’s 2006 "Romeo and Juliet" adaptation “Water”. “Wherefore Feminist Cinema? Reimagining Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’”
? Thursday, April 18, 5pm
? Kathryn A. Martin Library Rotunda
? Free to the public
TALK DESCRIPTION
Shakespeare’s renaissance on film coincided with the birth of cinema itself. Beginning in 1899 with a scene from King John, the burgeoning medium brandished the Bard in search of cultural legitimacy. The rise of the Shakespeare film was literally a man-made phenomenon as a genre historically dominated by men and known for classic auteurs such as Sir Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Grigori Kozintsev. Although women have been adapting Shakespeare for the cinema since 1914, there remains surprisingly little research into their work.
This lecture is focused on Indian director Deepa Mehta, who weaponizes Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to highlight the plight of widows in pre-Independence and modern-day India in "Water" (2006). Using the balcony scene in particular, Mehta’s "Water" deploys oppositional, feminist filmmaking techniques to deliver a profoundly dangerous message to India’s ruling party, the BJP, about sexual violence, statelessness, the caste system, and the rights of women—even as the widows themselves, ranging from age eight to eighty, become ciphers of India’s national identity. Two takes into the filming of "Water", Mehta received death threats and her entire crew was forced to bunker in a
hotel prior to being expelled from India. Moving the shoot to Sri Lanka and filming under the false title Full Moon, "Water" was released in 2006 against all odds, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. "Water" is a poignant illustration of Shakespeare’s legacy of cultural subversion and political engagement across time, place, and media.
SPEAKER BIO
Courtney Lehmann is the Tully Knoles Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at the University of the Pacific. Focusing on the intersection of gender, race, and class in film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, she has published several books, anthologies, editions, and more than forty articles and essays on the subject. Most recently, she was commissioned to write the film essay for the Norton Critical Edition of Macbeth and is currently completing a book on the untold history of women directors of Shakespeare films for Indiana University Press. She received the Phi Beta Kappa Award for Excellence in Teaching and was the 2021 recipient of the Hasenkamp Award, Phi Beta Kappa’s highest recognition for teaching, research, and citizenship among all Northern California Universities.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
UMD Kathryn A. Martin Library Rotunda, 404 Library Dr, Duluth, MN 55812-3029, United States,Duluth, Minnesota