"An anagram of the body": Shakespeare and the Body/Text Commodified in My Own Private Idaho

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Abstract

Appropriation of Shakespeare in postmodern film, as distinct from adaptation, presents a partially seen textual body, cut off by the frame of the cinematic screen. My Own Private Idaho (1992, USA) in particular is overtly dominated, both visually and thematically, by the fragmentation of textual and physical bodies — the Shakespearean body as well its own. This essay examines the use of Henry IV's marginal characters and the echoic corporeal tropes of the play in the film's preoccupation with the body, using as a framework Barthesian critical ideas about the body-text (The Pleasure of the Text, 1975) and visual body tropes explored by Linda Nochlin (The Body in Pieces, 1994). Shakespeare's text becomes a body fragmented and commodified in Idaho, a film that presents both tragedy and rebellion via the manipulation of physical and textual bodies.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages26
JournalBorrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Adaptation
Volume6
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2011

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