Hamlet at Feuerstein: Fourth Shakespeare on Film Weekend

From the 20^th to 22^nd November, 2015, our fourth “Shakespeare on Film” seminar took place at Castle Feuerstein in beautiful Franconian Switzerland. With more than twenty Shakespeare enthusiasts, this year’s Feuerstein weekend has seen its highest number of participants so far and students from both the MA in English and American Studies and the Joint Degree programme spent their weekend together to study Shakespearean film adaptations in detail. 

This year’s play under scrutiny was Hamlet and PD Dr. Beatrix Hesse guided us through three days full of intensive discourse and two longs nights of even more discussions.

While sadly Franconia did not present itself from its best side when we left Bamberg, the torrents of rain were soon forgotten over Hamlet’s existential doubts and (supposed) madness. Sunday even brought us snow and our final discussion was brightly illuminated by the early winter sun and the reflecting snow on the trees – a sight some of our students had never beheld before.

After our final debate on Sunday afternoon, the bus took as back home to Bamberg through winter wonderland – an image we would normally connect to Christmas or the winter holidays. Now, after a thorough examination of Hamlet and its adaptations we will probably link winter wonderland to the image of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet shouting into Denmark’s snowy landscape.