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.

Revisions, revisions.

I misunderstood the original tweethis/bibliography post idea, and split them up. The combined/revised version follows:

Tweethis. Prince Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 surely grew much in his experiences with Falstaff and the lowbrow tavern crowd, so much that he understood better the common man in his later ascent to the throne and in his reign as King Henry V. However, looking at some chronicles of history concerning Hal's relationship to King Richard II, Shakespeare's depiction of Hal's rebellion can be seen as a manner of disapproval or dissatisfaction with his father's usurpation of the crown.

Social Graph. With my thesis leaning toward a historical approach, and my lack of friends who have a knowledge of British history, I haven't been able to get much from roommates, friends or family. I admit I'm also hindered by the fact that I haven't had any formal schooling on British history myself.

New Media. I've dabbled in goodreads and imdb for a few. I've enjoyed reading several reviews on goodreads about not only Henry IV, Part 1, but I also ended up looking into what people had to say about the preceding play, Richard II, and also Henry IV, Part 2. I watched the most recent film adaptation of this play which is part of a BBC series titled The Hollow Crown, which covers from Richard II to Henry V. This version's portrayal of Prince Hal is pretty true to what Shakespeare wrote him to be, so while I really loved the production, it didn't back me up with where I'm going. Back to goodreads for a second, I also checked for groups on Henry IV, but I was given nothing.

Equalized Power in Elizabethan Marriage

So I think that my Tweethis was too specific which scared away potential commentators.  Or perhaps I just haven't found the right group through my social searching. I'm finding discussion groups but they are more focused on films and more recent developments rather than on discussing a play with no recent film adaptations.  Another problem I faced is that I view Facebook as a more private than public circle.  For example I only chose to friend individuals who I see on a daily basis (or did at one point like high school).  Thus my "friends" list is rather small only 100-200 people.  I certainly don't friend teachers or neighbors and that would limit the social circles that I could reach through Facebook.  However my former roommate did comment on my status (She graduated in Classics but knew tons about Shakespeare as her mother is an actress who still performs on stage.) and gave me an insight that I never would have considered otherwise.

Mini-Paper

Twelfth Night Draft and Tweethis Comments

For my paper I asked people on my Facebook account if they read Twelfth Night in junior high, and if not what plays they read.  I found out that, at least amongst my acquaintances, it is not commonly taught.  I have one acquaintance, though, who knew of a school where the 8th graders are studying it. He directed Twelfth Night last year and he's played Malvolio. I've asked him more about that and I'm awaiting his response.

Here's my 4 page draft!  It's very rough. I have a lot more research to do. Any thoughts would be appreciated, though.

English Companion Ning Responses

English Companion Ning seems to be another good source to ask current teachers about teaching Shakespeare (or any other topic), if anyone is interested. I would have included this in my last post, but all of these comments got hidden in my junk mail. Go figure. :)

http://englishcompanion.ning.com/group/teachingshakespeare/forum/topics/teaching-shakespeare-in-the-21st-century?commentId=2567740%3AComment%3A665340&xg_source=msg_com_gr_forum

Using Twitter for Academic Research

I'm a big proponent of turning to new media and social networks when doing traditional academic research. If one goes straight to library catalogues or the indices of academic journals, this is problematic for two reasons: you are pursuing a less efficient, non-social mode of inquiry; and you are consulting only what I call "fossil knowledge": knowledge that has great value, but is not living because one cannot interact with it, and it has been taken out of discursive contexts where it can grow and develop.

Therefore, I'm training my students to follow a socially optimized research strategy that consists of four broad steps:

1. Tell people
2. Curate your research
3. Search new media and social networks
4. Search traditional scholarship

I have focused on the first two of these steps in a blog for another course. Here, I'd like to focus on the third step, searching new media and social networks, with an emphasis on using Twitter.

Social Networking and Teaching Shakespeare

I just thought I'd share some of the cool experiences I've been having while trying to incorporate more social networking into my research. I mentioned in my annotated bibliography that I posted some questions to Goodreads, English Companion Ning, and Facebook... and Facebook certainly had the quickest results. The initial question I posted and the comments I began receiving are below. Note that, as discussed in class, I opened up the discussion with a pretty broad topic, just to get a general sense of opinions and interest in the topic. I did also mention (although, perhaps I shouldn't have) that the question was for a class/grade... this was mainly for the same reason that was brought up a few times in class: I was worried about people not responding. Luckily, I had a big response... and some conversations that continued after this first post.