Annotative Bibliography: Shakespeare not in Love

Working Paper Title: Shakespeare not in Love

Working Thesis:   Contrary to what the populous believes, William Shakespeare is not the grand writer of an idealistic love that has been within our culture but instead uses humor and exaggerations to show the ridiculousness of societies view on what love is and gives his own definition of love. 

Coullie, Judith L. "Jack Shall Have Jill": The Ideology of Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream." Sabinet Reference. Shakespeare in South Africa, 1992. Web.

Here Coullie talks about how the ideology of love functions in a way that serves societal systems of gender, class, and familial and political hierarchy. I will use this article to show how Shakespeare has used love, something that culturally has been viewed as pure, as a tool to support societal roles and hierarchy.

Karandashev, Victor. "A Cultural Perspective on Romantic Love." Http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/. International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 6 Jan. 2015. Web. 

Karadashev talks about what society thinks love is and gives a clear definition. I will use this article to define what the cultural perspective of love is and then compare that to how Shakespeare has written what love is in his plays. 

Schalkwyk, David. "Is Love an Emotion?: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Antony and Cleopatra." Literature Criticism Online. N.p., 2010. Web.

Schalkwyk talks about how the definition of emotions in the academic circle has changed and how that plays into these two Shakespearean plays. I wish to use this to cross reference with the other article that defines what people believe love to be. 

Scheff, Thomas J.. “Gender Wars: Emotions in "much Ado About Nothing"”. Sociological Perspectives36.2 (1993): 149–166. Web...

Scheff explains how Shakespeare, even in his lightheartedness, has shown love to be something comparable to pre-war like behavior between nations; it is an emotion that carries anger, shame, tension, and conflict. Shakespeare has used love as some kind of social commentary instead of writing it to show what an ideal romantic relationship is and I wish to use that and other articles to form what Shakespeare thought love was.   

Wheelock, C. Webster. ""Not Life, but Love in Death": Oxymoron at the Thematic Heart of "Romeo and Juliet"" The English Journal 74.2 (1985): 70-73. JSTOR. Web. 02 Dec. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/816274?ref=search-gateway:0a2c6811ed2f6734cc3cf55d6a156ec5>.

Wheelock writes a creative essay that the form of a story and interview combination with Shakespeare. Here they talk about the oxymoronic pun that Shakespeare has made in Romeo and Juliet concerning marriage, sex, and death. I want to use this article to show how Shakespeare has used this pun as a dark humor element to point out the ridiculousness the love between Romeo and Juliet is.