Browsing by Author "Djouadi Aya"

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    William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1599) Reworked in McKelle George’s Speak Easy, Speak Love (2017): A Dialogic Perspective
    (Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou, 2025) Louni Melissa; Djouadi Aya
    This dissertation examines McKelle George’s Speak Easy, Speak Love (2017) as a dialogic transformation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1599), arguing that George’s novel actively enters into a critical conversation with its source text rather than merely reproducing it. Grounded in a synthesis of dialogic and intertextual theory, the study draws primarily on Bakhtin’s concepts of stylization, hidden polemic, and overt polemic, alongside Gérard Genette’s notion of pastiche, to analyse the novel’s adaptive strategies. By relocating Shakespeare’s comedy to 1920’s America, George reshapes narrative structures, character relationships and modes of speech in order to question traditional views of honour, love, social controls, and gendered authority. The analysis shows that stylization operates through transformed dialogue and behaviour, reflecting a shift in cultural norms and power relations, while hidden polemic subtly challenges Shakespeare’s treatment of female reputation and moral judgement. Overt polemic becomes more visible through revised character roles and altered narrative outcomes, specifically in relation to authority and romantic resolution. This dissertation demonstrates that Speak Easy, Speak Love engages in a sustained relationship with Much Ado About Nothing, revealing how adaptation can both revise earlier texts in response to shifting cultural and ideological contexts.