STUDENT PERCEPTION OF MODERNITY IN STAGING SHAKESPEARE
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF MODERNITY IN STAGING SHAKESPEARE

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the results obtained within a focus groups research carried out to identify the students’ opinion with regard to the modernity in some of Shakespeare’s plays being staged on the occasion of his death quatercentenary. The groups were assembled during two consecutive University years, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 respectively. The students participating in the discussions were first year students from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), therefore the interest of this research was twofold; on the one hand it benefitted from the perspective of very young people, unbiased by similar previous experiences while, on the other hand, the study involved business students who were not explicitly interested in literature if we are to consider their career choice. The paper is structured into three main parts, the first one containing a selected literature review regarding modernity in Shakespeare. The second one presents some of the most daring stagings of Shakespeare performed in 2016 at different festivals organized worldwide in honour of 400 years since the death of the Bard of Avon. The third part focuses on the discussions that took place within the student focus groups which were organized two years in a row for the purpose of covering two generations of students, therefore providing a larger and more diverse data base as reference. The main purpose of the present study is to see how the young generation relates to a classical author and how far modernity can go without damaging the original work of art. Such an artistic background offered the perfect pretext to analyse the cultural bias of the young generation by delving into their tastes, interests and level of information. This kind of data could be of real assistance to the teacher who is shaping the new generation not only from a professional point of view, but also their character and personality.

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