الفهرس 
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Abstract
Hamlet is ”The Monalisa of Literature” (T.S Eliot,1921: 57), and has been the
subject of constant scrutiny, mythologizing and adaptation. Hamlet has been
adapted and appropriated into and by various cultural contexts. Even confining our
attention to the same medium as Shakespear’s text, there exists an array of
theatrical adaptations in languages and cultures as diverse as Persian, Korean,
Arabic, German, Russian and Turkish. Critical study of ancient dramatic texts aims
to show the possible cultural kinship between the old and the modern worlds. Such
studies draw attention to the way in which antiquity can function as agent and
catalyst in the process of cultural change and exchange.
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the contemporary literary theories
of ”Adaptation and Appropriation” and apply them to the contemporary Arabic,
Nigerian and persian adaptations of the Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet. Unlike
traditional studies that dishonor adaptations and appropriations and evaluate them
according to their fidelity or infidelity to the original text, this study aims to prove
that the selected adaptations in this thesis (through the process of re-writing, recontextualizing, re-interpretation and re-creation) present dissimilar independent
creative texts. In addition to this, it aims to clarify through the three contemporary
adaptations of Hamlet that there is a robust political dimension in which the
adaptors subvert the hegemonic values in the society. However, it is important to
note that the political interests of adaptors differ, depending on their own cultural
contexts, backgrounds and intended audience. The adaptations of Hamlet, also,
establish our relationship to the past; at the same time, they suggest ways in which
our feelings are shaped by contemporary culture.