LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Gain Shakespeare Literacy
Breadth. Growing up so close to Cedar City's Shakespeare festival gave me many opportunities to become familiar with a good range of Shakespeare's plays, through going on my own or going back in high school. With this background, and the fact that this isn't my first Shakespeare class at BYU, I was curious to see how many new plays I would meet this semester. Several of the plays we read I had already either seen or read them, but it was a great refresher. Shakespeare's works amaze me in their applicability to life. They serve almost as a type of scriptures of the humanities. This semester I enjoyed learning a lot more about what is sometimes referred to as the Henriad, or the history tetralogy from Richard II to Henry V. Before this semester my interest in the historical plays was limited to Julius Caesar and Henry V, and I was happy to add to it.
Depth. The research paper I did about rebellion as found in Henry IV, Part 1 was a major help to the depth of my understanding of that time period in history. Despite my interest in the subject, I haven't ever taken a British history class, so the time I put into looking into Prince Hal's real life helped me put the play in perspective and gain insight on the play. Checking into some of my other classmates' research papers has also helped me learn of conversations concerning plays (Richard III is one example), which has been informational at the least.
Performance. I am sad to admit that I didn't make it to the Shakespeare Festival this year :( However! I was able to watch various film adaptations. I watched a few Kenneth Branagh film adaptations of some of the plays we encountered this semester, and I enjoyed them like I usually do his versions. I enjoyed the dry feeling of the 2008 RSC film version of King Lear, with its mix of movie and play styles. My favorite find this semester was "The Hollow Crown," a production by BBC done as a cultural thing for the Summer Olympics in London earlier this year. They covered the tetralogy I mentioned above, and they had some well-known actors (even to those of us West of the Atlantic) who did a great job.
Legacy. Concerning Shakespeare's legacy in my life, it's really a mix of the three aspects I mentioned above. Following The RSC on Twitter, I hear often of Shakespeare plays that are in progress. There are approximately a million modern adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, which show how people still find ways to incorporate his material in meaningful ways in life now. After reading Henry IV, Part 1 and researching into its history, I found it interesting how Shakespeare helped pen Henry V into a national hero and symbol of England.
Analyze Shakespeare Critically
Textual analysis. The analysis of Shakespeare's actual text happened in class, on my own, and on Learning Suite. I enjoyed finding things like Prince Hal's speech patterns and how they change from prose and poetry depending on who he's talking to. It's a common aspect in all of Shakespeare's works, but recognizing it this time around helped me see how even people nowadays still do similar things with speech.
Contextual analysis. Again, my research paper on Henry IV, Part 1 gave me the most in my contextual analysis. I haven't before looked this deep into the history behind a play. Sure, the fact that the play I studied is a history play helps, but there were accounts that brought up interesting points of view that helped me see things I wouldn't have been able to before. Also, having read some essays that looked at things like culture and political thinking helped me understand the context, which might add subtext, of actions by the king, his son, and the rebels.
Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
Formal Writing. I really enjoyed the entire process of writing my research paper. While in the end my thesis didn't quite attain the focus that I aimed for (it was a bit broad), it was still a great experience to put in time to search and research for things pertinent to backing up my claim. I'm not comfortable with submitting my paper as it is to any literary journals or even the BYU scholars archives, but I had those goals in mind while writing my paper and it helped give me a focus and motivation to do it well.
Informal Writing. I don't have my own personal blog (yet? still deciding if I'll ever do one), but I do have experience with blogging from other classes and also reading friends' and family member's. Not being my first rodeo, I found that I didn't have to find my 'blog voice,' which is something I remember having to do. I also used Facebook to pose questions concerning rebellion, the theme of my research paper, and it was fun to get responses and use some of them in my argument.
Connecting. In addition to formal and informal writing, conversations with people that are close to me were a good way to connect. I'm not a super social person, so I don't tend to share my thoughts with the masses. I enjoyed having interesting Shakespeare-spawned discussions with those close to me.
Gain Digital Literacy
Consume. I joined Twitter finally. I had been putting it off for a long time because I didn't really have a use for it yet. I kind of already knew that the hashtag search was a way to find certain themes among tweets, but I didn't know just how effective it would be until I tried it for myself.
Create. Blogging is the first thing I think of when it comes to creating things concerning Shakespeare. Posting my final paper on Google+ was a new thing for me. My circles aren't terribly large, so I doubt many people will access it, but it was nice to have that experience. I would have put it on Facebook as well, but I can't take Facebook very serious so I refrained.
Connect. I knew I would of course read many of my classmates' blog posts and some papers, which I did. I was happy to connect with one classmate; when I was searching for material for my research paper, I found an article which I referred her to. Even though I didn't find anything for me in that bout of searching, I was really happy inside that I found a connection for someone else. I also mentioned or talked about "The Hollow Crown" with quite a few people that I know, including family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers.
Reflections
The main thing about me and Shakespeare is that his works will always cause me to think about life and how I'm living it. For example, I don't really enjoy reading Hamlet, it really isn't my favorite play. However, every time I read it I can't help but get introspective about issues in my life and what I'm doing to confront or face them, or whether I'm just brooding about them. I say this slightly facetiously, but maybe it's too close to home . . . ha. Shakespeare makes me ponder about life in ways that scriptures usually do.
I love learning more about Shakespeare because as much as I love conversation just for the heck of it, not necessarily with a subject, it usually is worthwhile to bring up topics that Shakespeare wrote about. On a vain note, I love feeling educated about Shakespeare and sharing it with other people who may either have less interest or have put less time into it. Overall, Shakespeare will always be a part of my life because I won't have such an amazing collection of writings go neglected by me.
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