Abstract

This essay discusses Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books as an allegory of the adaptation of canonical literature to cinema, with The Tempest's colonial concerns refigured as a confrontation between a "masterful" original and an "unfaithful" follower. The essay then situates the film's meditation on the literary artifact and neobaroque aesthetics in opposition to the discourses of heritage circulating in Thatcherite Britain.

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