Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold

Hag-Seed

• Genre: Fiction; contemporary retelling
• Originally Published: 2016
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 47 chapters with Prologue and Epilogue; approx. 320 pages; approx. 8 hours, 11 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: In this modern retelling and reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a theatrical director named Felix lives an isolated existence after losing his job and family; he nurses bitterness toward his replacement at his former theater, a man named Tony. Eventually Felix finds work teaching and directing at a local correctional institute, where he coaches the inmates to perform works of Shakespeare. When Felix discovers that Tony will be visiting the prison, he concocts a plan for vengeance to be played out during a performance of The Tempest.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Loss of family members; use of drugs; threats of violence

Margaret Atwood, Author

• Bio: Born in 1939; a native of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; graduate of Victoria College and Harvard University; recipient of the Franz Kafka International Literary Award, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and The Booker Prize, among other awards   
• Other Works: “Siren Song” (1974); The Handmaid’s Tale (1985); The Blind Assassin (2002); “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet” (2009)
• Awards: Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction (longlisted; 2017)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Your Mind Can Be a Prison
• Empowerment Through Transformation
• The Marginalization of Imprisoned People

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Explore background information on The Tempest and intertextuality to increase their engagement with and understanding of Hag-Seed.
• Read/study paired texts and other brief resources to deepen their understanding of themes related to Your Mind Can Be a Prison, Empowerment Through Transformation, and The Marginalization of Imprisoned People.
• Demonstrate their understanding of the novel’s intertextuality by using quotes from the novel to create an original example of intertextuality.
• Analyze the significance of various elements of the novel, such as motif, setting, symbolism, epigraph, tone, mood, voice, perspective, point of view, and characterization, and construct essay responses tying these to the novel’s meaning.