Annotated Bibliography In Progress

Annotated Bibliography

Please note that I am still looking for a lot of sources and consider this bibliography to be "in progress." 

Working Thesis:

Shakespeare's concerns with legitimacy, unnatural family ties, ambition, and other themes as they appear in several of his plays demonstrates a concern for the causes of instability during the Tudor dynasty.

Social Graph and New Media:

I am very behind in these sections because I am having a hard time finding people to talk to about my thesis and I have not yet turned my attention to new media.

Social Networks:

 I have found a "Tudor History Lovers" group on Goodreads and I've posted my ideas there.

Scholarly Resources:
Reference

•  Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare Online. 1999. Web. I have not explored this website fully, but from what I can tell it's a source on all things Shakespeare and his life and times. This site will be useful for understanding what Shakespeare, his audiences, and his patrons were concerned with and how his plays were constructed thematically.

• Dobson, Michael, and Stanley Wells, ed. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford University Press. 2001. Web.  This is not a very detailed site, but it has basic information about the plays, the characters, and some of the historical context. I plan to use this site for summary information about when the plays were written, what the major thematic elements are, and use that information as a springboard into deeper research.
• Burton, Gideon. Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. Brigham Young University. Web. This website gives definitions for the usage of rhetorical terms, sometimes with examples. I am using the Rhetoric website for references to specific types of rhetoric used in the primary texts. 

Articles

•  Hunt, Maurice. "Shakespeare's King Richard III And The Problematics Of Tudor Bastardy." Papers On Language & Literature 33.2 (1997): 115. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Mar. 2013. This article describes the issues of legitimacy and illegitimacy in Richard III and how these were an actual reflection of the Tudor's preoccupation with legitimacy, and it also includes a summary of how this issue appears in other plays. This article evidences my idea that issues of relevance to the Tudors were thematically important in Shakespeare's works, specifically legitimacy, and while Shakespeare's depiction of it was meant to show the Tudors in a good light it also showed how problematic the issue was regardless of political leanings.
•  Lane, Robert. ""the Sequence of Posterity": Shakespeare's King John and the Succession Controversy." Studies in Philology 92.4 (1995): 460-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 7 Mar. 2013. Robert Lane argues that King John was Shakespeare's oblique approach to discussing the succession during Queen Elizabeth's reign. This article is a good source for understanding the historical context of the play not just as context but as actual people and events shaping the play itself.
• Ozzie, J. Mayers, et al. "King Lear and Fathering: A Panel Discussion." Journal of Men's Studies 6.1 (1997): 103,114,120-121. GenderWatch; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.This article is a panel discussion of a group of fathers after watching a performance of King Lear. This is not only a good resource for understanding King Lear but also a good analysis of family ties and parenting that I think can apply to the family dysfunctionality of the Tudors.