Christian Images in Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth (2015)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics School of Literature and Humanities Shiraz University

2 Staff Member of the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature

3 Professor of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Shiraz, Shiraz, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, College of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Jomhoori Eslami Blvd. Shiraz, IR 71946-84636

10.34785/J014.2021.985

Abstract

< p>Justin Kurzel’s film, Macbeth (2015) demonstrates a large number of Christian symbols and images. This comparative study seeks the relation between the Protestantism discourse of the Elizabethan era, and the religious visualizations and images used in Kurzel’s movie including the Cross, paintings, costumes and mise-en-scene. By applying Linda Hutcheon’s theory of adaptation to exploring the film, the meaning of these images can be found through contextualization. How Kurzel creates a new way to visualize the main socio-historical ideas of the original text will be examined. Stam’s model of intertextual dialogism helps a better understanding of how these images relate to the original setting. While Kurzel features an authentic medieval Scottish setting, he employs new visual ways to convey the socio-cultura context of the Shakespearean Macbeth. Concerning Macbeth (2015), it could be argued that there are still similar examples of the justification of violence and war in our contemporary era. By voicing the marginalized Macbeths, Justin Kurzel relates to similar unjust conditions in the contemporary time and place.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 07 September 2020
  • Revise Date: 20 December 2020
  • Accept Date: 20 January 2021

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