Final Trailer Video

I figure I should link to Mikhaela's blog so you guys can get to the final trailer any way you please.

http://taitmikhaela382.blogspot.com/2012/04/mikhaela-and-kayla-present-our-trailer.html

I'm pretty happy with what we came up with.

Looking Back on the Semester

Somehow this semester has managed to be both long and short. In any case, it's time to evaluate myself against the learning outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

• History, Context, Genres and Themes, and Ethics

  Explain the historical and literary contexts, genres and themes, and ethical dimensions of Shakespeare’s representative works. From learning together about the educational context and history in Love's Labor's Lost to personal learning about the nature of the relationship between Jews and Christians during Shakespeare's time, I think this one is covered.
  

• Secondary Scholarship

  Develop familiarity with key secondary scholarship about and critical perspectives of Shakespeare's works. As tempting as it was to always go straight to JSTOR, I learned to use other databases and ways of looking at Shakespeare. Some (like the academic articles) were formal, and others (like fellow bloggers) were less so.
  

• Scholarly Research

  Perform scholarly research on Shakespeare’s works by identifying and evaluating appropriate research sources, incorporating these sources into a well-documented formal academic paper, and formulating arguments based on those sources. I've got an entire blog post dedicated to my annotated bibliography for my research paper. I also incorporated scholarly research into my repurposed project (as seen in my "Rethinking Repurposing" post). These sources often proved to be more of jumping off points than the evidence for my points, which suited the project well at times.
  

• 1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
  Demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy
  a. Breadth (knowledge of a range of Shakespeare’s works)
  b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)
  c. Performance (stage and screen)
  d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)

I read a range of Shakespeare's works, even if some of them didn't get put into my final work. I looked at The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, All's Well that Ends Well, and Love's Labor's Lost. I focused more on The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew for my research paper and repurposing project and accomplished the depth requirement. I saw different adaptations of both of these plays, as well as seeing the live performance of Love's Labor's Lost. In the process of making the debate video with Mikhaela for The Taming of the Shrew, we looked into the history of scholarship on both sides of our issue, and even came across some newer content that was similar to ours.

• 2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
  Interpret Shakespeare’s works critically in their written form, in performance (stage or screen) and in digitally mediated transformations. This includes
  a. Textual analysis (theme, language, formal devices)
  b. Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural)
  c. Application of literary theories
  d. Analysis of digital mediations

I did several character and theme analyses during the semester, most notably in my lead up to starting my research paper with The Merchant of Venice. I also wrote performance reviews for the live shows we saw, and some other digital versions of Shakespeare (like the claymation version of The Taming of the Shrew). The contextual analysis I enjoyed most was in The Merchant of Venice when talking about views of Judaism.

• 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
  a. Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video)
  b. Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)
  c. Collaborative creative project

The first of my attempts to creatively engage Shakespeare was when I made my Merchant of Venice fake facebook wall. I also created several videos, one a debate with Mikhaela, another as my own project (a presentation to abuse counselors using Shakespeare). I contributed to our final collaborative project.

• 4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
  This includes engaging in the following:
  a. Formal Writing. Develop and communicate your ideas about Shakespeare clearly in formal and researched writing and through a format and medium that puts your ideas into public circulation.
  b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing
  c. Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class.

I engaged in formal writing for the research paper, and publicly shared my process through my tweethis and rough draft, as well as my blog. A lot of my informal writing took place in my blog.

• 5. Gain Digital Literacy

  Students use their study of Shakespeare as a way of understanding and developing fluency in 21st century learning skills and computer-mediated modes of communication. Those skills are grouped under the following categories.

  a. Consume - Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching,

  b. Create - Producing content that demonstrates learning and which can be shared for others to profit from.

  c. Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.

I consumed a lot of others' work with Shakespeare. Not only did I develop preferences for certain of my classmate's blogs, but I also was able to search for media and information outside of our classroom. During our social proof focus especially, I learned a lot of different ways to search for others' ideas. I created content that could be shared. After my research paper, I made a video presentation using Prezi (which I learned about during this semester) that I could share. I connected with students inside the class and outside with other professors and peers at BYU.

So that's just about it for the semester. I've really learned a lot in this class, and not just about Shakespeare. I've probably learned more about making my work interesting, and making it matter to more than just me and the professor paid to grade it.

Repurposed Content

Here's a link to my final repurposed content.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rID4TOJ9tE

Using Professor Burton's software it was surprisingly painless. (So P.S. Thanks a ton.)

AHHHHHHH.

You could not believe my frustration right now. Everything is done. Really. Presentation, complete. I've even typed out exactly what I'm going to say since no one's seeing my face. I wrote in slashes when I need to switch slides so I don't have to think about it.

Prezi hates me. Or perhaps my computer is the issue. In any case, it is all moving so slowly (huge lag) during the show that the video will just look ridiculous. Maybe I can do it on someone else's computer (maybe Professor Burton's?) tomorrow. But right now it's 2:30 am, I've been trying too long, and my sleeping roommates are problems sick of me making strangled cries of irritation.

And my last post sounded so happy.

Comparable Sources

I'm the queen of finding and doing things and not posting it. (Just in case anyone was wondering.) As I was finishing up my repurposing I thought I'd post some of the things that influenced it.

I was looking for material that would be comparable to what I'm doing, which is proposing a different (ish) approach to therapy for abuse victims. A few people suggested that I look at the BYU counseling center. I started just by looking through the faculty and their specialties. Luckily, fairly early on I came to Michael D Adams. I noticed in his list of specialties/interests/theoretical leanings the phrase "narrative therapy." Could it be this perfect?

Yes. It could indeed. So I started researching narrative therapy. First, of course, I got a general Wikipedia overview. A relevant section:

Narrative therapy holds that our identities are shaped by the accounts of our lives found in our stories or narratives. A narrative therapist is interested in helping others fully describe their rich stories and trajectories, modes of living, and possibilities associated with them. At the same time, this therapist is interested in co-investigating a problem's many influences, including on the person himself and on their chief relationships.

By focusing on problems' effects on people's lives rather than on problems as inside or part of people, distance is created. This externalization or objectification of a problem makes it easier to investigate and evaluate the problem's influences.

Then, I started looking at articles through the library. I found two interesting ones:

Narrative therapy for women who have lived with violence

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883941798800186

Partner abuse group intervention - Lessons from education and narrative therapy approaches

http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/17/7/783.full.pdf+html

I especially liked the first one about women who have lived with violence. Here's the abstract.

Narrative therapy is proposed as a possible treatment approach for women who have had multiple experiences of sexual violence and abuse within the context of their intimate relationships. Narrative therapists elicit discussion of unique outcomes, which are moments of strength, autonomy, and emotional vitality hidden in life stories that are otherwise saturated with suffering and oppression, to open up possibilities for constructing new life narratives. Examples of such unique outcomes revealed to the author by individuals participating in a research project concerned with women's responses to sexual violence by male intimates are given.

So, it's about looking at complex situations in complex ways, and finding insight in stories. Ta-duh! So is my proposal. The difference is that I want to use Shakespeare instead of just people's own life stories. It fulfills the same objectives, and is especially useful in the process of externalization described above. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'll just make a few modifications to my presentation based on some more information, and bam! Done.

Rethinking Repurposing

I’ve been rethinking my repurposing a little (lots of “re” in that sentence). The more I thought about my original plan the more it felt weird. It felt a little fake, to be honest. As well meant as it would be, I don’t really feel right posting in the kind of forums I’ve been observing, especially with my topic and angle.

In all honesty, I think this topic is better angled toward counselors, who may then direct their patients toward different therapeutic routes. So I’ve been leaning toward a narrated presentation. And hey! Even if other people are doing it too, I totally suggested it first, right? Right? Working on it as we speak. As I type this? Right after I type this? I’m obviously a little out of it.

Our (Mikhaela's and my) Video Interview

Mikhaela and I decided to film together since we take opposite sides of the same issue.

A Review of Love's Labor's Lost

Love’s Labor’s Lost is one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays, and was never among the most popular. The lack of popularity though had less to do with the quality of the work and more to do with the audience. Love’s Labor’s Lost is filled with wordplay that makes it harder to understand for a common theater-going audience. This play is meant to be performed for an educated audience. The blatant commentary on education can’t even be classified as an undertone.

BYU’s production of Love’s Labor’s Lost got the audience right. They performed for mostly a student and educated group of people. The only problem is that the vocabulary of the educated has changed since the late 1500s. So even though we strain to catch every word, we can’t understand everything, despite our desire to feel educated and cultured.

It’s unlikely, and with be unprofitable, to sit there with a dictionary to look up all the confusing words. BYU tried to get around this, with variable success, with body language and non-verbal noises. While the exact meaning of what the girls were saying to each other in the dressing room was unclear at times, the audience can figure out what’s being talked about when a bunch of girls are fluttering and giggling to each other. During the radiobroadcast, the banter was helped along by the applause signs and the facial expressions of the actors. We could tell it was a jab if the other character got a pouty face, and it must have been funny, so we laughed.

Love's Labor's Lost and Flirtation

The flirtation in Love’s Labor’s Lost is insane. Or is it? It actually doesn’t seem too far off from what women are doing nowadays. In Shakespeare’s time, women didn’t have very much power in a lot of areas, but they could get a sense of power from the way men reacted to them.

One tactic is playing hard to get. A friend and I talked about this not too long ago. We were somewhat disturbed how effective this was, even with us. Maybe it has something to do with worth being influenced by competition. When there is less of a product, the price/value for it increases. This means that even if two people were on the same level, the one who seemed like more effort would be the one to pursue.

Another flirtation is word games. The playful banter in Love’s Labor’s Lost excites and intrigues the men. While constantly fun and interesting conversation (contrary to popular belief) is not at the heart of a good relationship, it sure is good at beginning the attraction.

It’s humorous to watch, but if any of the flirty or lovey things we say today were put into play form, they would probably sound just as funny.

First try at paper video

I've been feeling not-so-good (hence not being in class on Wednesday), so excuse my odd voice and less enthusiastic nature--I'm trying. I only recorded once and just saw what happened. So it's about 2 minutes because I wasn't looking at a timer. Also, I've noticed that my attempts to be excited ended up making me move around in a ridiculous fashion. Hah.

Mikhaela--shout out to you in here.

Peer Reflections - Mikhaela & A Cate Kate

To Mikhaela--

As weird as this sounds, reading your paper was difficult for me. Not because it wasn't a good paper, but because it took almost the opposite side of the argument I was making. I said Kate and Petruchio were abusing each other; you said they strengthened one another.

If you were to revise your paper, something I would recommend would be to look at organization. Your central thesis is clear throughout the paper, but I wish there were more of a building feelings to the arguments.

Now, as for where to go from here, you have a couple really different options. The Taming of the Net sounds interesting. It connects to using things in their intended roles (Kate needs to act in her role/sphere of influence, and internet tools need to be used for their correct purposes). What do you think your audience for this would be? Teachers? Kids? Families? It might change the media you want to present it in.

And then your other thought on marriage counseling. I think you'd have to make some adjustments with this one because of the different gender roles in Shakespeare's time versus now. A woman that feels oppressed by her husband who then reads Taming of the Shrew is likely going to be offended rather than aided. You'd have to emphasis that the idea wasn't to follow Kate's submission exactly, but emulate the general idea that each partner should act within their role in the relationship. I think a blog series is one possibility for that, especially if you'd like to target women--they're all over the blogging community.

Thoughts on Media

While us students like to complain about the traditional research paper, I think it has serious merit in organizing and creating a thesis-driven argument (and in a way other media can’t). It’s not a stopping point though. As I thought about my topic more, the idea of stopping at a ten-page paper seemed ridiculous. It would be to an audience of zero, or zero people that actually needed to hear any of it.

So I started to think more about my audience: abuse victims, primarily women. A lot of the looking around I did didn’t end up anywhere near my paper because it wasn’t the right format. From what I’ve seen, women who struggle with abuse don’t go anywhere professional first. They go to Google and search.

And they find themselves in forums. Oh, sometimes people link to various blogs or sites they have dealing with the issue, but for the most part these communities exist in a space in between blogs and forums. The forum “questions” are often long enough to be blog posts, anyway. Certainly, no one is touching a link to a research paper.

How best to be useful, then? Well, first another observation. No one really wants to tell the details of their story, but they want to be validated by the details of someone else’s. Which leads me to think—what better story than one that, while detailed, belongs to no real person? I think that by taking a Shakespearean story of abuse and telling it in a modern way, a lot of women could be drawn in to the larger issues. So, start with the story, lead to the implications. Maybe by having the story as a forum post that links to a blog series? One thing I wouldn’t want is for it to seem deceptive in any way. Thoughts?

Post-Interview Post

I thought the title of this post was pretty good, with the two "posts" and all. Then I did that thing when you look at a word too long and it starts losing its meaning and you think you've spelled it wrong. ANYWAY.

I had my interview with Professor Burton yesterday. I was pretty worried about it because I didn't feel all that ready. I think I spent so much time researching that writing got started up a little late. This led to what I'm sure was a more interesting paper than a well-written one. A couple of things I would change in a revision ASAP:

1. The intro. It needs to be more interesting and explanation, and well, introductory. We came up with a couple ideas in the interview, one of which involves tricking the audience (always one of my favorites).
2. The organization. The list form is a better analytical tool than an argumentative tool. So reorganize and condense. My preferred way to do this would be to organize the evidences by progression (least troublesome to most troublesome signs of abuse).
3. Develop the idea of power plays more, which complicates any static roles of abuser and victim.
4. Work some Portia and Bassanio in there. She had power taken away from her by her deceased father, then she turns around and starts some power plays with her new husband.

I'm glad we're not done with these papers yet because I'm not ready to be done. This link is to my "final" paper as is:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qFoUCCazURgET4ghAzlrssFA61FX-Lc3I5dAlHnqxyI/edit

Updated Tweethis

I got some more responses on my tweethis, so I thought I'd post them here.


The two newest comments talk about how Shakespeare is universal in time (and that's why we still care) and how we haven't learned from history, and that's why things are the same. I think the second is an interesting way to see a connection. It implies that abusive relationships are a solvable problem that we just haven't learned enough about yet. I'm not sure that I believe that.

A Meeting

In a last-ditch effort to put my paper together, I took Kaleigh’s advice and met with Professor Hutchins on campus, where I again learned how many people are better qualified than I am. He brought up several interesting points. I won’t go into too much depth in an effort to get to some more writing on my paper:

1. The view of Jews in The Merchant of Venice is mostly based on stereotypes. The Jews had been kicked out of England in Shakespeare’s time, and it’s unlikely that he ever met anyone who openly confessed to being a Jew.
2. There’s a ton of Greek mythology in Merchant that can lead you to believe that even Shakespeare held a somewhat sympathetic view toward Shylock (and women and homosexuals, for that matter).
3. The court scene shows the insufficiency of the law. Mercy is what saves people.
4. A lot of the other (more minor) character relationships are troublesome as well. Jessica is an outsider brought into a new world, with her main draw being that she could steal her father’s gold (which she has already done). Antonio and Portia seem to be fighting for Bassanio’s affection. The power plays of the women with their husbands are disquieting.