Earticle

초록

영어

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner’s screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film version of West Side Story constitutes neither a remake of the critically acclaimed 1961 film nor a slavishly faithful adaptation of Arthur Laurents’s book for the 1957 stage musical on which it is based. Instead, Kushner’s screenplay can be viewed as an often radical reimagining of the stage play that enhances its characters’ backstories and motivations while simultaneously drawing the work closer to the source of the original West Side Story: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. While observing the basic structure of the 1957 stage play, Kushner’s screenplay makes substantial changes to Laurents’s characterizations and dialogue, the latter of which he has rewritten almost in its entirety, creating an arguably more Shakespearean adaptation in the process. This article examines the numerous differences between Kushner’s screenplay and the 1957 stage book, addressing in particular how the former pays homage not only to its Shakespearean origins through the paraphrasing of a number of lines from Romeo and Juliet, but, more significantly, how it more closely resembles its 16th century precursor in terms of several of its central characters, including Riff and Valentina (Mercutio and Father Lawrence, respectively), as well as in certain plot and thematic aspects.

목차

Ⅰ. Introduction
Ⅱ. The Original Stage Version of West Side Story and Its Relationship to Romeo and Juliet
Ⅲ. How Kushner’s Screenplay Differs from the Stage Version of West Side Story by Reemphasizing its Shakespearean Origins
A. Changes to the Dialogue and Plot
B. Changes to Characters
Ⅳ. Conclusion
Works Cited
Abstract

키워드

저자

• Derek McGovern [ Professor, Pukyong National University ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  영어영문학21 [English21]

• 간기

  계간

• pISSN

  1738-4052

• 수록기간

  1967~2025

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 840 DDC 820