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Re-thinking the Metaphor of Shadow: From Plato to Shakespeare and Zeffirrelli

In any work of art, from literary to visual, theatrical and cinematographic, the presence of shadow, most of times associated with the presence of light, emerges as a particularly motivated sign. The very act of placing a shadow in a specific context makes the shadow subject to the same area of interpretation as the rest of the artwork. Within each artistic field, there are lots of meanings associated to shadow: from philosophical, theological and psychological to symbolic and metaphorical. According to the artistic medium it belongs to, the metaphor of shadow is usually engaged in creating and modifying the atmosphere, in visualising images, in diminishing or increasing the dramatic intensity and mainly in accumulating meaning. The present study intends to explore the transposition of the metaphor of shadow from its allegorical roots, as in Plato’s allegory of the cave, into new artistic environments such as literary and cinematographic. Be it employed in the service of an idea, as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet or used for creating a visual and cinematic effect as in Zeffirelli’s homonymous film, the metaphor of shadow adapted its means of expression in order to extend the area of significances.