From Hamlet to 15-Minute Hamlet: genre shift through language manipulation

Abstract

While Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted and interpreted for many years now, and are being reshaped and refashioned as we speak, it is Tom Stoppard’s 15-Minute Hamlet that will be the focus of this study. This particular retake on Shakespeare’s Hamlet calls for attention since it is an open display of drastic linguistic and ideational change. We look into how the original tragedy turns into a parodic comedy, and how this genre switch is achieved by language manipulation, especially through lexical choice, syntactic compression, and humorous hints, all of which contribute to subverting the original tragedy.