• adaptation theory
• feminism
• Hag-Seed
• hypertextuality
• Margaret Atwood
• panopticon
• The Tempest
• translation
• translation commentary
• William Shakespeare

"Hag-Seed” is not only the name by which Prospero defines Caliban’s mother, Sycorax, in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but it is also the term used by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood to title her book. Her novel, Hag-Seed, will be the translating subject of this dissertation. The translation and its commentary will be preceded by an in-depth study of The Tempest, through some key readings of Shakespeare's work, ranging from colonial to feminist interpretation. The ultimate aim is to discover and analyse how such readings were transferred and translated into Margaret Atwood’s novel.
The main questions are: what are the peculiarities of Shakespeare that make him contemporary and immortal? How can a major seventeenth-century classic be adapted for a twenty-first-century audience?
Precisely, this dissertation is divided into four chapters.
The first chapter focus on the concept of “Hypertextuality” and the notion of “Adaptation Theory”, studied through works such as "Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree" by Gérard Genette, and "The Adaptation Theory" by Linda Hutcheon.
The second chapter deals with one of the most accredited readings of The Tempest: the post-colonial interpretation. Central to this chapter is the concept of prison, meant both as physical space but also as the constriction of bodies and lack of freedom. In particular, I will refer to a specific type of prison, called Panopticon.
In the third chapter we move on to a feminist interpretation of The Tempest, which could not be missed considering the importance that such a reading has in Magaret Atwood's works and life.
The fourth and final chapter focuses on the translation commentary. This will be followed by the last part of this thesis, the translation of the chapters I considered most relevant from Margaret Atwood's novel.