Individualization and Oedipalization in Reza Servati’s Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: An Expressionist Reworking

Abstract

This article investigates Reza Servati’s Macbeth, an Iranian prize-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, to discuss the way the adaptor prunes the source text aiming at presenting his distinctive reading of Shakespeare’s play. First, this study is concerned with the way Servati minimalizes the source text and how the process of minimalization serves the adaptor’s preoccupation with the psychological complexities of the characters. Second, it is discussed how Servati’s changes to the source text takes the Renaissance inclination for individualism a step forward. Third, it is argued that the individualism in Servati’s adaptation is aimed at Oedipalization of the play, an attempt that shows the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis. Finally, this article investigates the way Servati’s adaptation can be considered as an expressionist reworking of Shakespeare’s Macbeth by making the individualization of the plot subservient to the expression of the typical course that everyman goes through.