If anyone doubts whether Shakespeare should be re-imagined in an alternative historical context, consider this: anachronisms abound in Shakespeare’s plays. Don’t believe me? Check out this list:
- The University of Wittenberg did not exist in Hamlet’s day
- Neither did rapiers exist in 12th century Denmark (Hamlet). In fact, they were a new invention, even in Shakespeare’s time.
- There’s a reference to a “gun’s report” in Midsummer Night’s Dream
- The chiming of a clock in Julius Caesar (clocks weren’t invented until medieval times)
- In Troilus and Cresside, set in the Trojan War, Hector quotes the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived centuries after the war took place.
There are probably many more instances, but this should be enough to let you feel free to reinvent his plays by adapting them to Steampunk short stories.
What you may want to ask yourself is why Shakespeare deliberately included anachronisms in the plays. To make temporally distant events and characters easier for Elizabethan audiences to relate to? To unsettle expectations and create his own sense of reality within the circle of the Globe theater? Why would he do that?
How can you apply Steampunk anachronisms to a retelling of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets in short story form?
One thing is clear: you should feel free to reinvent with impunity, for the Bard himself was a timepunk!
