Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Tweethis and Annotated Bib (Merchant)


Tweethis:
While racism and religious prejudice are clearly foregrounded in the play The Merchant of Venice, their presence serves as a medium in which to explore a deeper question—whether one’s nature can change, and what has the power to change it.

After trying to support my previous thesis to a couple of people I talked to, I found that I was actually more interested in and had more evidence for an argument about one’s ability to change or not as a theme in The Merchant of Venice, as opposed to my previous, related topic on nature versus nurture. This way I can incorporate both my ideas on racism and on conversion.

1. Social Graph: I sent a text to my little sister and both my parents with a thesis statement. They obviously weren’t able to give me super expert or educated advice, but they did give me opinions on how interesting the thesis sounded so I did get some feedback on the intrigue of the topic. When I talked to my roommate she said the topic was interesting enough to her that she wanted to read the play, so that was at least encouraging.
2. New Media: I found some blog posts that interested me:
http://theshakespeareblog.com/2011/07/the-news-of-the-world-and-shakespeare%E2%80%99s-venice-notw/ (this one was just plain interesting, although I’m not sure it relates much to my topic)
3. Social Networks: I have already posted my thesis on facebook and gotten helpful feedback. It helps that I’ve befriended some previous English classmates, but there are all sorts of perspectives to get out there, so it’s up for anyone to see right now. I haven’t created an account on linkedin yet, because I haven’t figured out exactly what that entails, but I plan to, since it looks like an extremely relevant resource.
4. Traditional Scholarly Sources: I have read almost all these articles, and the rest are bookmarked to be read in the future. They have really helped me to find evidence that I hadn’t considered, and to explore what’s already going on in the conversation I hope to enter:

Julius Caesar as a Vehicle for Teaching Rhetoric

So I have decided that my tweethis shall be: In the play, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare focuses greatly on the power and importance of rhetoric and thus this play is a tremendous asset to secondary school teachers who teach this tradition to their students and should be used as a vehicle for teaching both Shakespeare and the importance of rhetoric.

LLL Annotated Bibliography


Revised Thesis: 

The inconsistencies are in Love’s Labour’s Lost, such as the divergent ending, can be explained because the play is an original story by Shakespeare and not a retelling of a familiar story. I want to prove that Shakespeare ended this play without a happy ending to reflect of the history of the times, write for a specific audience, and a show some originality in his first story he created.

Bibliography:

Social Graph:

  • Roommates-Vary from English to Psycology to nursing, so I will get all degrees on the scale from familiar to completely lost
  • Family-We all went and saw Hamlet together so they are all familiar with Shakespeare though not with this play. Still they are up-to-date on media and pop culture so they will have good insights
  • Professors-I am taking the Tudor Sonnets class from Kim Johnson. I could probably ask her for direction and obtain social proof
  • Classmates-With the blog going not I feel better knowing I can post if I get lost and need help.
New Media:

Social Networks:

  • Facebook, though a large portion of my friends don’t speak English
  • Any other groups I stumble across in my research
Traditional Scholarly Sources


Revised Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography

Thesis Statement:

In his works Othello, Hamlet, and _______, Shakespeare addresses universally applicable themes such as communication and trust that are important for secondary students to understand.


After some thinking and reading comments on my last post, I have decided to focus my research on teachings secondary students about honesty and communication by using Othello and other Shakespeare plays. I am not familiar with many of Shakespeare's works however, and so would love feedback and some guidance from those who read plays with themes that could apply. I also am struggling a little bit to make my thesis argumentative, and would love to hear any thoughts/ideas. I want to explore these themes in two or three (I think too many more than that would be too large of a task) of Shakespeare's plays as well as explore the concept of how things are not as they seem ("honest Iago," for example).


Annotated Bibliography:
Social Graph
There are a few people that I think would be good to keep in contact with as I move forward on my research. One of them is my brother, Steven. We are close in age, and so have grown up together and have always bounced ideas off of one another. Another person is my friend Emily, who is an English major at another university. A third person is one of my favorite high school English teachers Dianne Madsen. She might be hard to get a hold of, but she would be a great resource.

I am on both Facebook and Twitter. I don't use Twitter as much, but I think I can work harder on that network because it is such a good way to reach out to a wider audience than Facebook.

Twelfth Night Tweethis and Bibliography

My updated Thesis is:

Twelfth Night is a valuable play to be studied by junior high students as an introduction to Shakespeare because of its insights into human nature and cultural changes, interesting historical context, and entertaining qualities.

Do you think this is specific or arguable enough?

Annotated Bibliography:

Social Graph:
As far as a social graph I've got my cousin, Grayson. He's an actor and he's probably very familiar with Shakespeare. My old roommate Kirsten got a degree in English Teaching and would have helpful insights.  My mom will she listen to whatever I say and provide me with intelligent responses. My roommate Jocelyn Gray, like my mom, will listen to whatever I say, and she comes from a different perspective. 

Jessica's Taming of the Shrew Annotated Bibliography



Social Graphmy friends, dinner group, work associates, goodreads, parents, teachers

New Media
Social Networks
Goodreads Shakespeare Group I’m posting my “Tweethis” here and seeing what response I get, Facebook ditto!

Traditional Scholarly Sources

  • Smith, Amy L. “Performing Marriage with a Difference: Wooing, Wedding, and Bedding in The Taming of the Shrew.Comparative Drama 36, nos. 3-4 (fall-winter 2002-2003): 289-320.
  • Martins, Maria Lúcia Milléo. “The Taming of the Shrew:  Shakespeare’s Theater of Repetition.” In Foreign Accents: Brazilian Readings of Shakespeare, edited by Aimara da Cunha Resends, pp. 126-37. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2002.
  • This has the changing ideas of marriage and how women are supposed to behave and act even though they are the vehicles through which men receive property and money.
  • Crocker, Holly A. “Affective Resistance: Performing passivity and Playing A-Part in The Taming of the Shrew.Shakespeare Quarterly 54, no.2 (summer 2003): 142-59.
  • Argues that feminine virtue is a performance that allows women to obtain their desires of free agency within the play.


Revised Thesis

Although Kate’s subservient attitude seems to be simply submission to her husband’s will, it is actually her shaping and controlling both her husband and their marriage. This movement of power from the man to the woman showcases the changing concepts of an Elizabethan marriage.

Most everyone seemed to like the thesis I had so I turned to the information from reading some blogs that I had found.  One characterized Beatrice as a Shrew for always speaking her mind and yet she often portrayed as being well liked which is in direct contrast to Kate.  I thought of how both Kate and Beatrice seem to receive that which they wish in the end, whether it is going to Bianca's wedding feast or reading the love note/marrying Benedict.  Other blogs discussed how power is wielded by the women because they manipulate the men.  And so I tried to clarify that point in my thesis above to show what I had learned.

Teaching Shakespeare in the 21st Century


After some deliberation, and a helpful comment from Ian on my last post, I've decided that I am going to focus my paper on teaching Shakespeare in a junior high/high school setting. I mentioned originally that my focus applied very specifically to A Midsummer Night's Dream, but with some comments from Kasey and Catherine I've decided to expand it and focus more on the teaching aspect. I'm not sure how I'll end up tying A Midsummer Night's Dream into this, but I'm currently thinking that this play will be a vehicle to demonstrate how someone could actually use my research in the classroom. 

At this point my very short "tweethis" statement would be: The way that Shakespeare is taught in high schools needs to be adapted to better fit the 21st century. (Notice that I don't say exactly how it needs to change... but it's a work in progress, right? :) And here's my annotated bibliography sharing some of the ways that I'm hoping to gain insight into my topic/better focus my tweethis:

Expanding the Circle

This is what I've been able to dig up so far in attempting to expand my social media outlets:
I posted my question about Shakespeare in translation, and received two helpful comments on goodreads.com.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1080666-shakespeare-in-translation
One user wrote this:
"I've often wondered about this. I remember a professor of German (he was English) telling me how much easier S was to follow at the theatre in German than in English. The German was modern and all the difficulties and complexities of language had, to some extent, been translated out."
I feel that I can relate to this experience, because reading Richard III in Spanish was much easier to understand than in English. While the English version has sentences dripping with words full of meaning, the Spanish text put the idea Shakespeare was trying to convey in a straightforward, unmistakeable manner. 

Halstaff

For my part in researching Shakespeare in ways that interest me, I have read Henry IV, Part 1 and looked at relationships between some of the major characters, most often Prince Henry (a.k.a. Hal) and Falstaff. Out of my original three ideas for a paper, I completely scrapped the first one because I felt it wasn't very original and wouldn't be interesting. As of right now, I'm thinking of maybe doing a mix of my context and critical engagement 'protopapers', but I admit I'm unfortunately running into a mild amount of trouble with settling on a thesis. Maybe I'm being too picky.

I do have good substance though! I have researched what has been said before about Prince Hal's tavern life, his life with Falstaff and company. I have also read some about the actual history of Prince Hal before his father deposed King Richard II. It turns out that Prince Hal was a bit of a ransom when Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV) was exiled by Richard II. This was to ensure that Bolingbroke would be on good behavior. Even more interesting was the account that Hal may have even seen Richard II as a godfather of sorts.

One chronicle gave an account of Henry (future prince Hal) when his father returned to England. Young Henry was told by his father he needed to leave the king to wait on his father instead. Henry was saddened to leave, this is supplemented by other records which suggest that he was very loyal to King Richard II. With these things in mind, I'm currently thinking I'm going to look at Henry's tavern/rebellion days with Falstaff and show that they were a way to somewhat passively disapprove of his father's usurpation of the crown.

Is Prince Hal thinking that he wishes Richard II was still around?

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Shakespeare's Spanish Counterpart?

I am exploring Spanish translations of Shakespeare, and translation in general. I found a great clip from a documentary exploring the parallels between Spanish and English theater, and discovered a prolific Spanish playwright named Lope de Vega, who, according to shakespearetheater.org, is the "'father of Spanish national drama', reinventing (rather than reinterpreting) material taken from sources as varied as those of Shakespeare: history, legend, mythology, chronicles, ballads, Italian novellas, town life, country life, the lives of the saints and the Bible, while Shakespeare came forward after English theatre had already developed a variety of dramatic forms."

But you don't have to take my word for it . . . 12:18-12:46

The Spanish Shakespeare?
This got me thinking, that if Shakespeare is translated everywhere, what about Vega? Why is it that Shakespeare's words are translated into 72 languages and Vega remains well-known only to the Spanish literary tradition? Perhaps because although Vega has his own unique storylines, for Shakespeare, “the language IS the storyline" as one SpanishDict chatroom user put it. That leads me to my thesis: 

Taking a Pedagogical Look at Shakespeare


  1. The play, Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, should be taught at a secondary level with an emphasis on rhetorical tradition.

     
    I read one article which talks about the rhetorical properties of the two funeral speeches. I have also taken 2 different rhetoric history classes and I think there is a lot of useful information to be had by students in the consideration of rhetorical analyses. This play by William Shakespeare in particular is full of allusions to the rhetorical tradition. Things like virtue, logos, pathos and ethos, types of speeches, etc., are all things that fall beneath the category of rhetoric. By helping high school students to understand these concepts, it will make it easier for them to spot some of these same things at work in other literature and speeches that they will read throughout their education.

Production Schedule for Shakespeare Research Papers

My current Shakespeare students are creating research papers, using this blog to document and develop their research in conversation with others. Here is our updated production schedule.



Love's Labour's Lost, Realistic Ending Found

So I've been trying to decide what angle to take with my paper on Love's Labour's Lost. Since class last week, I decided I want to write something that I can really have fun with. I don't want to write a paper just to write a paper, especially if this paper is going to be saved in an archive for all eternity. I might need some help in direction if my fellow classmates (and teacher) would bee so kind to throw me some input.

From beginning to almost the end, Love's Labour's Lost is has got all of the ingredient necessary to cook the perfect Shakespearian comedy. It's got the silly situations, the love stories, the mix-up, the disguises, bake four five acts until fluffy . . . or not. Reach the end of the play and instead of a happily ever after, there is death, there is depression, and the women leaving the guys and heading back to France.

While sitting in class last week, I got thinking, why did Shakespeare end his play this way? Maybe he was just having a bad day. Or maybe he wanted to show how the story would end in reality. Then I got thinking more, what if more of our favorite stories ended realistically. To show what I mean, I'd like to quote from my little sister:

"Take "You've Got Mail" the perfectly adorable movie about two people who fall in love through e-mail.  Ah, it's impossible to hate this cute rom-com featuring the charming Tom Hanks and quirky Meg Ryan.  But wait.  Let's really analyze what would have happened if Kathleen Kelly hadn't taken so kindly to finding out Joe Fox was her romantic pen pal.

Joe rounds the corner of the park.  Kathleen sees him and realizes that he is the man who wrote her the adorable letters.
Joe: "Don't cry ShopGirl"
Kathleen: "Wait - so you have known that I have been ShopGirl for like a few months and you've not only continued writing me but also decided to trick me into dating the real you on the side?  Oh yea and you also put me out of business."
Joe: "Uh yea but remember how I'm sweet and I brought flowers to you when you were sick?"
Kathleen: "You mean when you 'heard' I was sick, found out where I lived and when I wouldn't let you in snuck up to my apartment and forced your way in.  Oh yea real sweet."
You see how that can be seen as just a little creepy?  It's not only in movies folks.  It's everywhere.  You never know if what you are going to do in the name of love is going to come off as completely romantic or like you're the vampire who watches them sleep (which for some reason is also romantic?  I'm lost)."

My sister was not thinking about Shakespeare when she posted this on her blog, http://toastphenomenon.blogspot.com/, but the idea works. Many times we confuse fiction and reality to satisfy our need for happy endings. Love's Labour's Lost choses to ignore the happily ever after rule and show what really happened. Somehow I would like to turn this idea into a paper. I'd like to look at other famous movies, stories, books, novels, etc. that have happy endings and show how they could have ended like Loves Labour's Lost. If anyone has any ideas on how to turn this into a strong acedemic paper and not just and experiment on endings, I'd love the help.

What's a hero without a villain?

Awesome! This took me forever to figure out! I am not much of a blogger but I am excited to learn more about it. Anyway, I have been putting some serious thought into this paper. I am going to be applying for Grad School next year so I want to start getting some good stuff out there.
As you all know, I am rather fascinated by the concepts of villainy in drama and cinema. I think that a good villain makes a good hero. I have been trying to think how I could make Shakespeare more fun and interesting for people who...er...can't quite swallow him. I think that a paper exploring Shakespeare's influence on modern popular film might snag some peoples interest.

These are my proto-papers. I think, however, I may end up writing a hybrid of all three. I wonder if that would have an appropriate scope, or if it would collapse on itself.



Textual
The villains of Shakespeare are self-assertive, aspiring, calculating, and clever individuals. They push hard against the society that often pushes them first. It is this rugged determination to fight against all odds that we as the audience find so fascinating. We become their confidants and often co-conspirators. Though we dread their success we long to see them exercise their intelligence against societal norms. As characters they almost always undergo a transformative moment during a soliloquy as they conceive an image of who they are. The Shakespearean soliloquy is vital to the power and draw of his most famous villains. 

This “proto-paper” would delve deep into the soliloquys of some of Shakespeare’s most compelling villains. Special attention would be paid to figures of speech, rhetorical strategies, and other methods used in presenting the character. The real interest would be that it is the rhetorical essence of these soliloquys that causes Shakespeare’s villains to be so fascinating, not necessarily the plot alone.

Contextual

Shakespeare created villains who exemplified all the classic tropes of villainy that abounded in sixteenth century England. Marauders, border thieves, murderers, and assassins were not uncommon. A few of the most famous brigands of the Renaissance are Geordie Bourne and Guy Fawkes, both of whom had gained a certain level of notoriety. The characters and crimes of these men are of such audacity that they too could have been villains of drama. This suggests that Shakespeare drew from actual criminals of his time to create his most dastardly villains.

Exploring the most famous criminals of the 16th century reveals a great deal about likely sources of Shakespeare’s villains. There are a few records of wardens and other government officials that describe the crimes and punishments of the era’s most notorious bad guys. By comparing these actual criminals with those of Shakespeare’s drama, I hope to indicate how Shakespeare managed to create such lasting villains. His plots were not entirely original, they were based on history, folk lore, or other plays. Why should his villains be any different? This does not demean his accomplishment. On the contrary, it further exemplifies his skills as an artist.

Critical Engagement

Villains represent the fears and dangers of society. Often times we create villains in art to express what we are truly afraid of. Shakespearean villains are often a conglomeration of what society truly feared. Usurpers, murderers, and schemers, they form a wicked community. It is the realism and accessibility of villains such as Iago and Edmund that brings them their appeal. This is what set Shakespeare apart. His villains expressed Machiavellian ideologies, pushed limits, and were anything but simple. These agents of evil gave birth to our modern concepts of villainy in cinema, literature, and drama. Today, we too express our fears through terrifyingly real and potent villains. The Joker of The Dark Knight is a modern descendant of Shakespeare’s Iago and Edmund.

This prospective paper would involve contextual as well as critical sources. The previous prompts might even fit inside of it. I found an interesting book titled, “Villains and villainy : embodiments of evil in literature, popular culture and media”. I have also found countless other sources that discuss and critique the villains of Shakespeare on an individual basis from multiple different angles of interpretation. I plan on fusing these two themes to explore the impact Shakespeare had on our modern concepts of villainy in modern culture.

All in all, I really am leaning toward all three. I just wonder if that is too much material. A really interesting source on modern day villains was this,  
 Villains and Villainy : Embodiments of Evil in Literature, Popular Culture and Media. Eds. Anna Fahraeus, Dikmen Yakalı Çamoğlu, and Global Villains and Villainy Conference (1st : 2009 : Oxford). Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2011. Print