POETRY, DRAMA AND CLASSICS ARE ON STAGE Erasmus+ project 2017-1-TR01-KA219-045575_3-4. Coordinator: Esen Kuvvet. Webmaster: Dr. Francisco Pérez

1. From Book ShelfTo The Stage
Have you ever heard this expression “Cinema of the literature”? Yes since the beginning of the cinema poetry,
drama and classics have been enormous treasures for the film-makers to come out with good productions.
If we look back at the earliest time, we can remember dramatic poetry and epic poetry were the origins of literature
in Greece. Playwright used to write plays and the people used to perform the earliest dramatic poetry for Dionysus. So
Dramatic poetry remained popular from the classical period through ages up to now.
As a unique example, Shakespeare wrote his plays Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar,Romeo and Juliet using poetic
language. In spite of modern theatre,we are still watching Shakespeare’s plays with a great pleasure although they
were written hundred years ago. Julius Caesar is still remembered with Antonius poetic speech to Roman citizen and
balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet with their poetic language has made the plays very popular through the years. So
that viewers have never forgotten these poetic speeches which are still told all around the World and of course make
the theatre popular and universal art. This became a good example for upcoming playwrights through the years they
used poetic language for theatre such as Samuel Beckett,the most influential dramatist of the last half-century.
Therefore,most playwrights started to write their plays using poetic language to affect the audience and make the
scenes unforgettable.
Poetic language is also commonly used for many films. For instance, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
originated from the poem “Eloisa to Abelard” which created great influence on viewers. Furthermore, we can take a
look at V for Vendetta. In the film, poetic language is used to remind Gunpowder Plot.
If we talk about the impact of the classic novels on cinema, we can easily remember these novels White Nights,
Pride and Prejudice, Les Misérables, The Godfather, Wuthering Heights, The Wren, Great Expectations, Lord Of The
Flies excellent classic novels from the World Literature resulting in excellent films. It is obviously seen that film-
makers needed to read the masterpieces of the famous classic writers to come up with a successfulscript..
The earliest films were adaptations of literary works. In the early 1900’s, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare was the
most outstanding example of book-adaptation and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Godfather by Mario
Puzo, The Clown and His Daughter by Halide Edip Adıvar made a tremendous impression to the cinema. From that
time until now, film-makers adapted vast numbers of literary texts into movies which have been found great interest
by the viewers and we are still watching Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice and the others at the modern cinema
since they are the novels of all times.
Film-makers have always taken classic novels into consideration in their new projects,. because they have many
reasons why they adapt classics into films.
Firstly; books and films have equal importance on human of the 21st century that the technology is developing
rapidly. Secondly, the film-makers are aware of that books especially classic novels are treasures for movies with
their unique characters,settings and plots as well as they are a great source of knowledge from history, literature,
policy, social values of different nations... While Shakespeare’s tragedies have rich material for a film adaptation,
Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables has a great source for a historical film as well as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,
Charles Dickens‘ Great Expectation that reflects the 18th Century English Society.
So the CLASSİC NOVELS ARE ON SCREEN trend has been beneficial for the readers who want to watch the
film version of the classics they have already read. On the other hand, this trend also brought immense viewers to the
cinema so that cinema has gained a good prestige and more qualified films which include unforgettable scenes from
various classic novels which created great influence on viewers.

2. Furthermore, educators have started to use cinema and theatre as a source of teaching. They bring the film version
of the Classic novels, poetry and drama to the classrooms as material for their subject such as literature, history,
sociology,philosophy etc. While they are studying the books, they have begun to use their film version to bring life in
front of eyes of the students at the same time. Even to these days, students can watch epic poem Beowulf from the
very old times through cinema. So we can say that films and plays have become the part of education through poetry
drama and classics.
In conclusion, we admit that these works of art are unique resources for the cinema and theatre which are the part
of the same circle and this is the fact that books give life to the cinema and theatre,
POETRY DRAMA AND CLASSICS enrich the stage and the screen.