Filming The Taming of the Shrew in Franco's Dictatorship

La fierecilla domada

Authors

Juan F. Cerdá University of Murcia

Abstract

In Sam Taylor's film of The Taming of the Shrew (1923), Mary Pickford winked at the camera after Kate's submission speech, linking the start of Shakespeare's sound film career to a tradition of interpreting The Taming of the Shrew within the boundaries of modern sexual correctness. As films and theater productions started to mitigate or expose Katherina's denigrating submission, in 1956 Spain provided the optimal context for an overtly doctrinal and regressive rewriting of the initial text. This essay describes how La fierecilla domada appropriates Shakespeare's play to reinforce a conservative view of national, social, religious, and sexual identity under the Franco dictatorship. The essay explores some of the connections between the film's production team and the regime, then analyzes the filmic text's (re)vision of Shakespeare within the context of the Spanish dictatorship.

Author Biography

Juan F. Cerdá, University of Murcia

Juan F. Cerdá — M. A. University of Birmingham (Shakespeare Institute), Ph.D. University of Murcia (Spain) — has been working in the research project "Shakespeare in Spain within the framework of his European reception" since 2006 and is currently teaching at the University of Murcia. Selected publications include "Spaces of Patronage: The Enchanted Island and Prospero's Books," Folio 15 (2008); "'Betwixt our nation and the aspiring French': Spanish Patriotism(s) through Shakespeare's Critical Reception (1764-1834)," Linguaculture 2 (2010); "Shakespeare in García Lorca's Early Poems," Atlantis 34.1 (2011). His research interests include Shakespeare appropriations on stage/screen and Shakespeare's Spanish reception. Currently, he is working on the publication of the monograph Shakespeare and the Renovation of Spanish Theatrical Culture, 1900-1936.