Much Ado About Nothing: Three Responses To Shakespeare’s Play

Abstract

The paper looks at Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing, as well as two film adaptations of the play, from a reader-oriented perspective, offering samples of an expert reading of the play, an initiated reading and a so-called “innocent” reading. We compare the three approaches taking into consideration the reception of the play’s motifs (such as the bedtrick) and the conventional reaction of the readers to them.

Keywords

• reader-orientedness
• expert
• initiated and innocent reading
• reception