Kaylee Ficklin: “The Role of Sympathy in Henry V’s Rhetoric”

          In Shakespeare’s Henry V, Henry is often seen as a manipulative figure who uses his powerful rhetoric in order to accomplish a self-serving political agenda. Arguably, Henry’s greatest power is his rhetoric, and critics often cite this as his most manipulative tool-the means though which he accomplishes his own selfish desires. Rather than praising his rhetorical abilities, critics question Henry’s motives and point to his rhetoric as the proof of his manipulation. However, “The Role of Sympathy in Henry V’s Rhetoric” provides a different view of Henry. I argue that because Adam Smith’s concept of sympathy contributes a great deal to the foundation of rhetoric, Henry’s character changes. The role that sympathy plays in Henry’s rhetoric changes Henry from a solely manipulative individual to a character able to feel and identify with his audiences. Understanding the role sympathy plays in rhetoric is crucial to understanding Henry.

Once Upon a Tudorista: The Story of Lizy's Paper

Portrait of Henry VIII and his family. 

 

It all began what feels like a very long time ago. Even I don't remember exactly how it started. I do know that I was beginning to see connections between the tragic events in the lives of the Tudor monarchs and similar events in Shakespeare's plays. I'd spent my life growing up reading about the Tudors, so why not write about them? 

With this topic in mind I began putting my ideas together. I started officially by searching for relevant scholarly articles. The best result I had was the paper "Shakespeare's King Richard III and the Problematics of Tudor Bastardy", which was an in-depth look at the connections between Richard's accusations of his relatives' bastardy and the tainted legitimacy of the Tudors. When I started drafting the paper I decided to narrow down the topic to just legitimacy. I still struggled, however, with my verbose writing and also my lack of sufficient scholarly sources. I was not very successful with social networks, but I tried posting my developing thesis statements on Facebook.

My grandfather passed away on the weekend of March 23rd, and the funeral was to be on the 30th. Deciding to head down to Arizona for the funeral, I finished my first draft by Wednesday the 27th and drove down on the 28th. It was here I was able to talk to my cousin Gloria, who commented on my ideas and gave me some more perspective (and by the way, she recently announced that she is expecting a baby). I returned just after midnight on April 1 and within twenty-four hours had found several more scholarly papers to add muscle to my argument, and I also checked out a couple of books from the library. I re-wrote the paper using substantial chunks from the first draft plus quotes from my new sources. For lack of writing time and paper space, my paper ended up being about why legitimacy was such an important issue in the sixteenth century rather than about how Shakespeare and the Tudors were connected, but I felt like the thematic issue was important to address (for personal reasons I will refrain from discussing).  I finished editing on Friday and called it good. 

Most of what I learned from the experience was that if I am writing an academic paper about something I am passionate about, I am more likely to put effort into it. Writing this paper gave me a chance to become more familiar with the Tudors and the history of their reign. From others' positive feedback and from my own personal feelings about the paper, this is one of the best term papers I have ever written.

Nyssa Silvester: "I'd Say I Had Eyes Again": Redeeming Shakespeare's Gloucester for the Blind

In the recent rise of disability studies, scholars like Georgina Kleege have drawn attention to the lack of role models for the blind in classic literature. Instead, literature tends to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of blindness, including blindness accompanied by compensatory powers and blindness as punishment for sin. Shakespeare's King Lear would seem to fall into these stereotypical traps in its treatment of Gloucester during the Dover Cliff scene, where his son Edgar supposedly fools him into thinking he's jumped off a towering cliff. Based on textual evidence, though, we can read Gloucester as collaborating with Edgar in constructing this scene for the audience. Therefore, Gloucester exhibits agency and hope in crafting his renewal, and he can serve as a start for blind role models in classic literature.

Paper found here.

Paul Bills: "'Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On': Shakespeare and the Cultural Legitimacy of Video Games"

Paul Bills: "'Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On': Shakespeare and the Cultural Legitimacy of Video Games"

In many ways, video games are fighting the same battle for cultural legitimacy that English drama fought in Renaissance England, a battle chiefly won by William Shakespeare.  The video game industry is currently in much the same state that English drama was in when Shakespeare entered the scene, and game designers could learn much from his example, as he arguably innovated a new medium as much as he achieved anything else.  Part of Shakespeare’s success depended on looking backward to bring already culturally important stories to the stage in order to prove that this new medium could be a vehicle for powerful art. I will argue that in order for video games to win cultural legitimacy they must prove they can do the same, and this paper specifically includes ways in which a video game adaptation of The Tempest could help expand scholarship of Shakespeare's text and exploit some of the unique mechanics of the video game medium to create a new and excellent artistic experience.

Lauren Remington: "The Villain: Iago as the Pinnacle of Badness"

Shakespeare's Othello, one of Shakespeare's most popular tragedies, showcases the works and cunning of one well-known and even well-loved villains, Iago.  Iago is a chameleon of a character easily capable of  manipulating those around him to meet his ends.  All the cleverness and cold calculation homaged, he lacks any definitive motive or driving purpose, merely revenge on the seemingly guiltless Othello.  This determined denial of a motive and extremity of action reflects well Carl Jung, a well-celebrated personality psychologist, and his theory on personality, specifically the "shadow" archetype.  The shadow is an amoral, metaphorical storage center of humankind's propensity to do evil, and Iago seems to be all shadow and all show.  He puts on a good display of variation in character, but he seems driven only by muddled revenge.  Jung's theories, put against Iago's character, reveal him to be a character of depth and have a role in the play and in the overall themes that extends far beyond the contributions of simple stock characters.

Included is the final draft of the above described paper. 

Shylock and the Shoah: "The Merchant of Venice" on the Nazi-era and Postwar German Stage

I am finally done with this paper, and I am quite proud of it. That hasn't happened for some time.

I've posted it on Google Docs. Enjoy!