Anotated Bibliography. . . . (finally)

Thesis: Though Coriolanus is commonly seen as a tragedy centered around the downfalls of pride in the individual the tragedy actually is found in the faults of a culture and society that cultivates such extreme pride to such extent that it breeds contempt among its people.

Social Graph: 1. My wife, Michelle Kesler.  She is more brilliant then I will ever be so she is a great person to bounce ideas off of when she can find the time away from her own studies to shed some light on the things that I'm doing.  2. My mom, Carla Verschoor.  I love my mom, but she is more of just a yes person for me.  I seek her feedback when I need encouragement.  She is amazing at so many things and I could never hope to be as awesome as her but literary studies are not her strong suit. 3.  My good friend Peter Dangerfield.  Peter graduated from the BYU English program back in 2009 and he knows his stuff pretty darn well.  I have often had him look over my papers in the past and he has never lead me astray with his insight.

New Media: 1. One of the obvious forms of new media I have consulted is the recent Film adaptation of Coriolanus Starring Ralph Fiennes and Gerrard Butler that came out in 2011. (trailer)  This version gives a really great portrayal of the conflict in a modern setting. (the film is great I highly recommend it) 2. http://theshakespeareblog.com/2011/06/shakespeares-fathers-nature-or-nurture/. This blog had some great insight about the nature vs. nurture argument in regards to father figures in some of Shakespeare's plays.

Social Networks: 1. I went ahead and posted my rough thesis on Goodreads.  I am hoping that since Coriolanus is one of the lesser loved Shakespeare plays that maybe that will play to my advantage and my post will bring out all the Coriolanus geeks and I will get a lot of feedback.

Traditional Scholarly Resources:  These are a few articles that I found that I thought could  potentially lend insight and support to my argument.   All of them dealt in some shape or form with the ideas of nature vs. nurture or helped me understand in greater depth the details of the play.                                                                                     

Passion, Prudence, and Virtue in Shakespearean Drama

by Unhae Langis

'There is a world elsewhere': Tragedy and History in Coriolanus. 

Academic Journal

By: Meszaros, Patricia K. Studies in English Literature (Rice). Spring76, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p273. 13p.

Subjects: 

TEXTUAL criticism; CRITICISM; CORIOLANUS (Theatrical production); SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616

Coriolanus and the Roman World of Contradiction: A Paradoxical World Elsewhere. Detail Only AvailableBy: Polka, Brayton. European Legacy. Apr2010, Vol. 15 Issue 2, p171-194. 24p. DOI: 10.1080/10848771003647923.

The Common Good and the Necessity of War: Emergent Republican Ideals in Shakespeare's "Henry V" and "Coriolanus." Full Text AvailableBy: Banerjee, Rita. Comparative Drama. Spring2006, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p29-49. 21p.
Full Text Available

Tweethis Thesis In Progress

My prospective thesis is that unlike tragedies, the romantic and ekphrastic elements of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale lend a trueness of life to the play, suggesting that those supernatural elements are the reason why the play is unexpectedly realistic.  

I found a great group on goodreads called Shakespeare Fans that has read through and talked about many of Shakespeare's plays, so I would definitely suggest checking it out.  One of the contributors to The Winter's Tale discussion used a lot of great resources and seemed very knowledgeable about the subject.  I messaged him on goodreads with my thesis and an explanation of what I'm thinking about the paper.  This was a couple of days ago, and he hasn't responded yet, but I hope that he will!  When he does, I'll post about it!

Teaching Shakespeare in the 21st Century

After some deliberation, and a helpful comment from Ian on my last post, I've decided that I am going to focus my paper on teaching Shakespeare in a junior high/high school setting. I mentioned originally that my focus applied very specifically to A Midsummer Night's Dream, but with some comments from Kasey and Catherine I've decided to expand it and focus more on the teaching aspect. I'm not sure how I'll end up tying A Midsummer Night's Dream into this, but I'm currently thinking that this play will be a vehicle to demonstrate how someone could actually use my research in the classroom. 

At this point my very short "tweethis" statement would be: The way that Shakespeare is taught in high schools needs to be adapted to better fit the 21st century. (Notice that I don't say exactly how it needs to change... but it's a work in progress, right? :) And here's my annotated bibliography sharing some of the ways that I'm hoping to gain insight into my topic/better focus my tweethis:

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.