Keeping It Scholarly: Some Tips for Paul

I already talked with Paul about his paper a lot in class today, but I figured it would be a good idea to write down what I had said earlier so we can all refer to it later.

First of all, Paul, I think your paper is coming together really well. You are clearly an accomplished writer, and you know how to put a paper together and integrate those sources. My problems however, come mainly from oversights that could make your paper seem less scholarly. And since you've submitted to RMMLA, I would love to help you catch those and give the paper that finishing scholarly edge.

Historical Context
You talk about English theater not being a respected medium at the time of Shakespeare, but a good question to follow up with is "Respected by whom?" As we discussed in class, Shakespeare lived just a little bit prior to the Interregnum, in a period when Puritans were starting to pass civil legislation. This kind of influence can be seen in the mockery of Malvolio in Twelfth Night; a common reading of that character is as a Puritan, trying to shut down all the fun in the play and loathed by those around him. So, though it's a pretty good move to talk about theater being rejected in England at that time, remember that this was top-down legislation by an extreme group and not necessarily disdained by a large majority of people.

The same cautions go with some of the quotes you have about the baseness of theater at the time. Be sure to show an awareness of when these quotes were uttered and whether or not they could legitimately apply to Shakespeare. I don't think everything needs to line up perfectly, but it is important to show that you know what's going on.

Melo Out . . .
Another thing I already talked to you about in class: the Tomb Raider-saved-my-life example is a bit melodramatic and can detract from the main thrust of your paper. I vote to cut it altogether and dwell more on the idea of art, as you do later. Speaking of . . .

Language Arts
I thought your close reading of that passage from The Tempest was quite clever, but it seems a little cheap to count the "art" from "thou art" as a definition of "art." I think you do a good job at gesturing to why we need to take this into consideration, but that assertion should probably be more purposeful. Talk about "art" as a state of being and how this could confuse the notion of art as product or performance. Just do something more with it than present it on the page; if you don't do something clever with it, it might seem like you're not doing good linguistic analysis. Take it one step further, and you'll probably be good to go.