ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses both dovetails with the reclamation of early modern disabilities and expands into film and adaptation studies with a focus on Shakespeare film adaptation. It analyses of both physical and mental disability in male and female characters in DBC and explores madness as it relates specifically to Hamlet, the titular prince of Denmark. The book addresses madness in both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and focuses on Caliban, and his many and varied representations. It draws on physical disability in The Tempest, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, and Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of Hamlet, The Bad Sleep Well. The book also explores early modern understandings of madness, before introducing the filmic stare and questions of how a largely invisible disability is represented for a visual medium.
