Gain Shakespeare Literacy
Breadth: Over the course of the semester, I read at least one play from each of the major genres of Shakespeare:
Taming of the Shrew, a comedy;
Henry V and
Richard II, histories;
A Winter's Tale, a romance; and
King Lear, a tragedy. Through reading these plays, I was able to expand my knowledge of Shakespeare from what I had acquired during high school, which focused mostly on the tragedies. And, since I read the Digital Dialogue posts and research papers of other students in the class, I feel at least conversant in other Shakespeare plays, as well as the general character and plot types that Shakespeare often uses.
Depth: Before this semester, I had only the vaguest of ideas of what
King Lear was about. Now, after closely reading it, researching it, watching a film adaptation of it, and writing a paper about it, I feel confident in my knowledge of that play. I read it at least twice through this semester, and I think part of the depth requirement is feeling deeply as a response to the play. My paper really helped me emotionally tap into the play in a way that I find difficult for most other texts. I can immerse myself into the tragic examination of family relationships and old age because of my deep involvement with and understanding of the text.
Performance, stage and screen: I only got to watch one stage adaptation this semester,
Henry V, but I watched film adaptations of
Taming of the Shrew,
Henry V, and
King Lear. I was able to sharpen my film analysis skills through examining choices made in the adaptation, and overall what I learned was the flexibility and creativity involved in adapting Shakespeare plays. Especially helpful for me was realizing that
Henry V has been portrayed as both rah-rah patriotism and harmful jingoism throughout the years, a difference I hadn't really thought possible before researching adaptations. I can now comment more intelligently on the differences between film and stage adaptations and the original Shakespeare text.
Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture): My first paper on
Taming of the Shrew really helped me understand the historical context of Shakespeare's plays, as did reading and commenting on other students' papers. For Paul's paper, for instance, I had to remind myself of the religious relations of Shakespeare's time to help him work through potential pitfalls in his argument. And though I nearly neglected the scholarly tradition for blindness in
King Lear in my fervor over disability studies, Dr. Burton pushed me in the right direction and helped me acknowledge the traditional approach to the play in scholarship. Reading other students' papers also got me interested in all sorts of Shakespeare scholarship that I wouldn't have had time to research on my own. It's harder to gauge my increased knowledge of Shakespeare in popular culture, but I have been able to integrate ideas and quotes from Shakespeare into my everyday life; I was even able to identify a misplaced Shakespeare quote in an early draft of David's paper.
Analyze Shakespeare Critically
I found that the more I was forced to articulate what I thought about the plays, either through writing in forums, blogs, and papers or through recording my thesis video, the more intelligently I was able to read the plays. I really developed my close reading skills (kind of my most prized skill from the English major) in being able to write a paper that revolved around them; I was able to take both scholarly traditions and historical context into account when reading a play and use these contexts in tempering my claims. I feel like I did a pretty good job over the course of the semester about avoiding easy arguments and Shakespeare platitudes, and my paper displays the consideration I took over multiple facets of an argument.
Engage Shakespeare Creatively
Like everyone else is going to say, the sonnet project helped me be creative with Shakespearean material. I really enjoyed the time I spent trying to get my meter down perfectly. Also, though, the Youtube videos I made, though I didn't really edit them much at all, let me know that more creative ventures are possible further in the future. It's not an impossible thing to make videos, and I'm excited about having that realization.
Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
Most of my Shakespeare sharing came from talking things over with my husband, Neal. I got used to talking about a books that (gasp!) many people have actually read. On the one hand, this means that I might not get to used the most developed forms of my arguments, but it helped me figure out what approaches to the texts would matter to and be understood by most people. Talking through my arguments with my peers in class really helped me fight my way out of the worst parts of academese, so now I'm prepared to enter the real world with experience writing (another gasp!) readable prose.
Gain Digital Literacy
This is the part of the class that I struggled with the most. I felt like I had to prove myself in my topic before asking people for their input on it, so that really hampered my outreach. I was also discouraged when most of the people I reached out to didn't get back to me. But I did learn how to search through blogs and social media to find things that people are talking about, which will be useful in the future far beyond a class on Shakespeare. I did, however, gain some bravery in talking to other people on the Internet, so I'm at least glad I gave the digital aspect of this class a try. I feel a little more connected with people in the world--like I can at least ask people questions without being terrified of what will happen.
