FICTIONALISING SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE ON PAGE AND SCREEN

Abstract

The present paper aims to examine representations of William Shakespeare’s life in popular culture, more specifically in two rising genres, namely biofiction and the biopic. The works that are thereby explored are Jude Morgan’s biographical novel The Secret Life of William Shakespeare (2012) and Kenneth Branagh’s biographical film All Is True (2018) respectively, both providing the public with different perspectives on Shakespeare’s life narrative, aided by the challenge posed by the (relative) lack of biographical detail. Therefore, Morgan and Branagh attempt to fill in the lacunae in the Bard’s personal history in order to recreate his life and shape his (supposed) identity as an individual rather than focus on his status of literary genius, revealing the flawed man beneath the cultural icon that he has become in an attempt to bring him closer to mass audiences.