Typically, when we speak of primary sources in literature we mean either the literary work under study (Shakespeare's Hamlet) or information produced by the author or their contemporaries. For this project, your main primary source will be the adaptation that you choose to analyze, but you'll also need access to the Shakespearean text from which it draws and a good working knowledge of the play.

The resources and strategies discussed on this page will help you identify relevant primary source material for your independent research.

Scholarly and critical editions will typically present and discuss variant versions of a text; provide historical, cultural and linguistic context; and delineate the history of scholarly approaches to that text.  Most scholarly editions will have an editor (or editors) and will be published by a university press. These editions are especially useful for approaching works with complicated textual histories.

Use Primo to find scholarly editions of Shakespeare's works at Collins Library.

A collection of documentaries, feature films, and television shows on DVD are available on the lower level of the library. They are arranged by call number. A (non-exhaustive!) list of Shakespearean film adaptations is featured in the box below.

To search for DVDs, use Primo. Search the title of the film to see if a DVD is available in Collins Library or is available through another SUMMIT library. 

TIP: If you do an advanced search in Primo, you can limit material type to film and video to retrieve streaming video and DVDs. 

Viewing DVDs:

If you do not have personal access to a DVD player, computers #28 and #29 in the Learning Commons are equipped with disk drives for viewing DVDs.

Media Services also provides loaner equipment (including Blu-Ray players and DVD players) for checkout to students, faculty, and staff. To reserve equipment, contact Media Services at 253.879.3963, media@pugetsound.edu, or by visiting the Tech Center in Collins Library 060.