Preview of Richard III

Here is my video preview of my paper:

The Story of Catherine's Research Paper

At first, I couldn't decide between comparing the Spanish translation of Richard III to the English version, or writing about Richard's deformity in the context of Medieval thought. I finally realized I was just more interested in the latter. Writing about something I was interested in exploring made the work much easier. I found some interesting things about the source Shakespeare used, and discovered it was actually an erroneous source. I also found a very probing tidbit about how Medieval people viewed disabilities. That really sparked my exploration of Richard's motivations behind being the villain. I was able to see a local performance of Richard III and send a message to the main actor, who shared a lot of my views and gave some insights into his character. At first I attempted to stress Shakespeare's intention behind crafting his villain, but after a conference with Dr. Burton I decided to cut a lot of those passages out. My thesis changed to include more of his historical misrepresentation and how society's view of Richard changed his self perception. My social process throughout writing my paper was successful overall, but I definitely hit some snags. I tried e-mailing the director of a production of Richard III in Cedar City, but never heard back. I was thrilled, however, when I was able to connect with a blogger who published a post that overlapped directly with my topic. I am pleased with the way my paper developed and the social input I obtained. I have submitted it to the literary journal Intersections.

Learning Outcomes

1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy

I was introduced to more of Shakespeare's works in this class, both through performance and reading. I particularly enjoyed reading Hamlet, since that work is widely known and interpreted, but before this class I had never read nor seen it. The most surprising work I read was Winter's Tale, which seemed to have some un-Shakespearian effects (the statue coming to life). After this class I feel that I have a better appreciation of Shakespeare's works as well as a wider knowledge of the various interpretations of his works.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically

I feel very comfortable analyzing a work by Shakespeare. The more performances I see of his works, the more I like to make connections across his works and see parallels between plots or characters. I especially enjoyed attending the live performances at the Grassroots Shakespeare Company. Although I struggled analyzing his written work at the beginning of the semester, I think I have improved since I can now recognize prose, poetry, and the colloquial forms characters will speak in. 

As You Like It

I too viewed "As You Like It" from the Globe. I found this production interesting because it was like a hybrid of movie and theater. Although we were watching a live performance, the camera ultimately had control of what we could and couldn't see. It would focus in on characters at different times, or give a wide shot of the entire stage. I liked this because I like live theater, but you can be limited because your point of view never changes. In this production, the camera could clue you in to where you should be looking. The camera can be limiting too though, since it might focus in on only one actor's face and you can miss other actors' reactions, etc.
Jessica commented on the actors' involvement with the audience, which was really fun to watch. It reminded me of the Grassroots Shakespeare plays. The groundlings are close, and the actors take advantage of that. At one point the actor's line mentions a schoolboy, and at that exact moment the actor pointed to a young boy wearing a school uniform, causing the audience to laugh.
The stage is pretty scant, but the actors did well in pretending they were in different environments. They also uncovered some hangings from the columns to simulate a forest.
Some of the themes were loyalty (Orlando is loyal to his father, cousin to Rosalind), gender roles, marriage, and love. The characters fit their roles well. I was happy to finally see the play where Shakespeare's famous line originated: "All the world's a stage."

Finished Paper!

Hooray!
Here is a link.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z2LuunRFfyemEqUIzxJLhz1-Qc8JqlInfLiCkj_W2AE/edit

I've only really looked into being published in Criterion, but I'll need to add about a page to meet the word limit, same as Gabe, as well as add some headings to show the transitions within my paper.

Criteria for Criterion

I've heard about Criterion before, but I never seriously considered submitting a paper. Never hurts to try! I read through one essay that was excellent, it had some deep analysis which made me want to strengthen my own textual readings. Quick question though, the papers were all submitted with big headings announcing the next section of the paper, which I could do in my paper, however, I don't think Dr. Burton wants it formatted this way. I could always change it after I turn it in. I think the whole class might as well take a shot at submitting a paper to Criterion, because what is the worst that could happen?
http://english.byu.edu/criterion/submissions.php

Video, Works Cited, and Advice From an Actor

Richard: Villain or Victim

Here is my four page working draft. It is still pretty rough, but I'm excited to be able to expand many sections of it. I need to work on citations, as well as a strong conclusion. I feel like I've taken so long setting up my ideas I ran out of room to fully develop why Richard is socially victimized. But I will definitely explore that theme as the paper expands. I'm also still trying to garner more social proof and excitement, but in the quick thesis change I haven't had time to address those avenues. I have posted on quora, with Twitter next up.

Topic Change!

This is a complete 180, but after researching Spanish literary traditions and trying to find parallels to Richard the III, all I had to show for it were a couple of weak theses, none of which I felt particularly compelled to research. So, I started thinking about my other idea that focuses on Richard III and his deformity. This has interested me from the beginning and after poking around a bit more I feel that I have more to go off of and that I'm not making the wild claims that my previous thesis led me to. So! Here is my social graph:

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. 

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBXWn00Cc-8

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: