Literary sub-genre: Novel or play retells a classic from the perspective of a secondary character or characters. The new story tracks the the original but shifts some of its action offstage. The two versions intertwine, each now commenting on the other.
Examples:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard).
James (Percival Everett).
@JamesGleick@tito_swineflu Ah. I knew I had blanked on the title! I have been reluctant to read it because I consider Huck Finn to be something close to a sacred text.
@JamesGleick There are tons! The Wind Done Gone, for example, retells Gone with the Wind from the slaves' point of view. The Last Ringbearer is an alternative take on The Lord of the Rings from the Mordor viewpoint. And so on.
@cstross@JamesGleick See The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Lamb by Christopher Moore, and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (though the latter two arguably aren't retellings of specific works of fiction by others).
@cstross@JamesGleick In the world of poetry, it might also be fun to look at Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" followed by Anthony Hecht's "The Dover Bitch".
@csk@cstross That might be my favorite response. I last read that at least 30 years ago and it never occurred to me in this context. (The “secondary” character being the unnamed party to whom the original is addressed.)
@JamesGleick@cstross Yes. I particularly like that Hecht takes an oblique approach. The response isn't written directly in the voice of the woman addressed in Arnold's poem, but presented as hearsay via a friend of hers. That probably enables a more cynical tone, defusing the brooding sincerity of the first poem.
@JamesGleick Grendel by John Gardner, and "The Yellow Wallpaper" short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is often cited as a retelling of Jane Eyre from Bertha's perspective.
@JamesGleick Pretty certain either I or my parents have one besides that one, but I can't remember what it is, and my own bookshelves aren't accessible currently. On the other hand, I might just be thinking of that one, or maybe of something I'm trying to write or a game I'm trying to make (eg. a Kozure Ookami game entirely from Daigoro's perspective...he's not exactly a minor character, but he's a toddler for most of the series).
@JamesGleick I enjoyed reading Wicked, the retelling of The Wizard of Oz from the wicked witch's perspective, exploring the politics and economics of Oz in great detail...
@JamesGleick
I can't offer suggestions as good as the others in this thread, but I can point out something that no one seems to have done yet, which is that there's a term for this: a "paraquel", which is technically a story running at the same time as another story (often, but not specifically, involving different characters' viewpoints).
@JamesGleick "Sycorax", a play by Susan Gayle Todd.
In part a prequel to "The Tempest", it is the story of Caliban's mother, how Caliban came to be born on the island, and Caliban's relationship with Miranda.