ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a shared dramaturgical conception of Shakespearean love as a generically transformative duologue. This conception marks a first step towards a larger transmedial theory of love that encompasses Shakespeare’s oeuvre and its diverse adaptational afterlife. The encounter of two individuals who duologically explore their newly emergent affective mutuality – either in language, music, or dance – provides a testing ground on which the generic constituents of these encounters are likewise explored and potentially redefined. The perspective on Romeo and Juliet through its musical and balletic adaptations thus reveals the broad interpretative spectrum within which Shakespeare’s representation of love may be read.
