No Fear (at all) (seriously) Shakespeare

I have been experiencing Hamlet through a lot of different mediums. I started listening to the audiobook with commentary by accident. After a few lines of Bernardo and Francisco back and forth, a voice cuts in, "Francisco has been keeping watch." "YA THINK?" I said (out loud, unfortunately). I think I was just annoyed by the interruption in the action. So I switched over to the non-commentary, and I'll listen to some of the most important/my favorite scenes with commentary afterward. And it's been going much better.

After a little bit, I pulled out my Kindle and started following along. I really liked this. It was like I was still reading the play (though slower). A while after I've read a book, sometimes I forget if I read the book or saw the movie, because that's how my brain works while I read. So as I read, voices and actors played over top, enforcing that effect. Loved it.

Then I came to the graphic novel version. I picked the Barron's graphic classics version. The first thing that struck me was actually the text. It still has the Shakespearean text in the dialogue bubbles, but below in boxes are little summary blurbs in modern English. It reminded me of Sparknotes No Fear Shakespeare. Except with the graphic novel style, it became Super No Fear Shakespeare. Laertes slashing Hamlet's arm is pretty great.

Now I want to watch the movie! I've seen a couple before, but I want some input. Which versions are your favorites?

The Merchant--Victimization and Bullying

Seeing The Merchant of Venice (or as it was then, The Merchant of Stratford) in a condensed children’s version was interesting. It’s one of the more morally confusing Shakespearean plays. Is Shylock really the “bad guy”? Or is it Antonio? Or Christians? Or Jews? So, the most interesting thing to me came in trying to see how the company portrayed difficult issues to an audience full of children.

Some of the Christianity/Judaism conflict was resolved by changing the groups to made-up names. It tended to downplay the prejudiced remarks and bring the other points to the forefront. I’d just been thinking about different paper ideas before coming to the play, and had been dwelling on the thoughts of victimization and mercy. It all seemed so grown up and professional when the thoughts first came, but as I watched the show that changed. The focus of this version was on bullying, which comes down to a children’s version of what I had been saying—who was the victim and who the victimizer? They didn’t answer in the end, but instead posed more questions. I liked that. I get sick of children’s media that gives a voice over at the end that clearly states the moral and how good little girls and boys should act. They’ve got to start thinking for themselves some time.

A point the company made was that no sides were showing mercy. Even Portia, they said, held Shylock to full justice. I don’t agree with that completely. Portia showed mercy when she tried to convince Shylock to just take the money. She already knew the loop hole and the consequences to Shylock. If he would just take the money and walk away, everyone could be happier.

I liked this play a lot. Not only did it make me laugh to see little kids try to get involved in the production (the highlight being the look on Jessica’s face when the actors told her she was going to marry that little boy Lorenzo over there), it helped bring seemingly big or abstract issues down to a more manageable size.

Othello and The Children's Hour

As I've been finishing up The Merchant of Venice, I've also started thinking about our upcoming paper. For some reason, Othello has always been a play of interest to me. I was looking over a summary, and another play came to mind.

It's a very very lesser-known play--The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman. Both plays deal with the destructive (even murderous) power of rumors. People who don't know much about The Children's Hour often label it as a "lesbian play." That misses the point completely. A quick summary. There is a girl's boarding school, taught by two female teachers. One girl is always trying to skip out on class or get out of things, and runs and cries to her grandmother a lot. She (Mary, the little girl) can only be described as evil. Once when she runs to her grandma, she begs her not to send her back, and hints at what can only be an accidental viewing of a romantic interaction between her teachers. She's a liar. Long story short--the school gets shut down. One engaged teacher starts having trouble with her man. The other teacher horrifically commits suicide. She has decided there must be some truth to the rumors.

So. Now I'm trying to narrow what I'm looking for in both texts for comparison. I think "the destructive power of rumors" may by a little too broad.

My Merchant of Venice Facebook Wall

I thought this would be a quick post, but as it turns out, creating The Merchant of Venice in Facebook form takes longer than you would think. I found this site called myfakewall.com and tried to translate the storyline to Facebook statuses and comments. Enjoy, I know I did.

http://myfakewall.com/w/The+Merchant+of+Venice

P.S. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to upload pictures without an http error. If anyone else finds out, let me know and I'll edit it.

What other forms would this story translate well to?

Personal Learning Plan

I hear you Professor Burton; I need a plan. Self-directed learning is new to me, but I think I'm starting to come around to what I should be doing.

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)
Read and blog about all of the assigned plays, as well as two additional plays.

b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)
Identify academic and other research options for the plays in order to learn how to choose emphases for the depth requirement.

c. Performance (stage and screen)
See an adaptation of each of the plays we read.

d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)
Make connections between scholarly work and popular culture.

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

This will be the focus of my third blog post each week. I think this placement is best, since I'll have the most time to read through and think about the work.

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

This should be fun. I would love to imagine a stage production from start to finish (including technical aspects).

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.

This would include a formal paper, my blog posts, and my interaction with class members' writing. I'm doing quite a bit of sharing outside of class. I'm sure my roommates and friends will tire of it pretty soon. "Want to watch a chick flick?" "Want to watch Henry V??"

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.

So, I'm going to post three times a week.
1. Initial reactions, as well as pop culture connections.
2. Scholarly research, perhaps with links to popular culture.
3. Textual Analysis

For every one of my posts, I'll comment on two of my peers, so that comes out to six a week.

Well, hopefully this plan is clear enough to keep me on track. That's right, I'm a girl with a plan. Feels great.

Band of Brothers: Kinship in Henry V

First off, you must know that the internet in my apartment is ridiculously unreliable, despite my router's name, Ole Reliable. Sometimes certain sites work and others don't. For example, the library page was being extremely non-responsive. Luckily, YouTube was not, so I got to listen to the St. Crispin's day speech while I waited. I'm in love. That's all there is to it.

Love ya man.

But seriously, it ties in. I read an article titled "Polysemic Brotherhoods in Henry V." If you're wondering what polysemic means, I did too. It has to do with the ambiguity of a word that creates multiple meanings. Christopher Dowd, the lovely man who wrote the article, points out that the different meanings and implications of brotherhood highlight conflict.

First off, brotherhood was interesting in Shakespeare's time. The older brother inherits everything, and the second son gets. . . hosed? (for lack of a better word right now). With the strong feelings that would create, you wouldn't think calling a friend your brother would be a compliment. It's similar to the royal "family" in general. Henry calls the French court his brothers/sisters/cousins, despite his negative feelings.

But then, in the St. Crispin's day speech, Henry claims his soldiers as his brothers.

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:

There's no rivalry here. Even those who are a little vile become gentled to him. Henry's been searching for what to call his troops, and as they prepare to die together, he settles upon this kinship bond.

So the conclusion? It's complicated. But it mirrors real brotherhood, and even the relationship of subjects to the crown. Sometimes brothers seem to simultaneously hate and love each other. Sometimes the subject is caught between his individualism and his nationalism.