Puck Through Time: Myth, Theatre, and Scenic Reinterpretations in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Abstract
This article analyzes the figure of Puck from a mythocritical, historical, and performative perspective, examining both his folkloric origins and his reinterpretation in contemporary stage and audiovisual adaptations. Drawing on medieval sources documenting the Anglo-Saxon puca, the study traces the process that transforms this ambiguous being into the dramatic character shaped by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The analysis focuses on three interpretations: Michael Hoffman’s film (1999), Tamzin Townsend’s theatrical adaptation (2007), and Julie Taymor’s stage production (2013). The study argues that the myth of Puck is continually reactivated through different performance languages, reflecting broader aesthetic, ideological, and cultural transformations.
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Amaltea. Revista de mitocrítica is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access."Full-text articles published in Amaltea. Revista de mitocrítica are open-access and published under a CreativeCommons License Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en. Reproduction, distribution or public communication of these articles with commercial purposes requires the Editor’s prior written. Redistribution for academic purposes is permitted, provided that the source and authorship are properly acknowledged, and that the journal is credited with the first publication, by adding a link to the journal's official URL. If available, the DOI of the article in question should also be included.
