Creative Writing Teachers Have Been Called...

 Just a quick update here, I have now officially sent an email to the teachers my classmates have pointed me too, and am waiting for a response. I used a kind of questionnaire format. Here are the questions I asked them to answer for me:

 1)      Do you feel that Shakespeare has had a significant impact on how creative writing is generally approached in classrooms today? If so, how? 
 2)       Do you use Shakespeare (directly or indirectly) in your own teaching of creative writing? 
 3)      Which of Shakespeare’s qualities do you feel are worth imitating or aspiring to?
 4)      For each in the following list, please rate on a scale of 1-10 how valuable that trait is for us to learn in our creative writing endeavors, and then briefly explain why you rated it what you did.

1)      Having a large vocabulary

2)      Playing with words, or inventing new words or phrases

3)      Having “the common touch”, or writing in a way that is accessible to normal people

4)      Having knowledge of other great contemporary literature, orators, actors and “the popular”

5)      Living with passion in every aspect of one’s life

6)      Writing (trying consistently to express oneself in written word)

       5)      Do you think that the majority of creative writing classes could be benefited by incorporating Shakespeare into how they are taught? If so, do you feel the greatest benefit would come by incorporating Shakespeare directly (by actual mention and/or study of him and his works in the actual class) or indirectly (by shaping your teaching around your own personal knowledge of him and his works)? 

      6)      Do you have any other thoughts, ideas, or insights for me about the role of Shakespeare in shaping today’s creative writers? 

         

        Hopefully I'll be getting responses back on these soon!

Calling All Creative Writing Teachers!

     So, I already mentioned this in class today, but I was wondering if I could get some help from my classmates. As part of my research, I was hoping to have the chance to interview some creative writing teachers, and find out their opinions about using Shakespeare (or not) in their creative writing teaching, or even just whether they think he's had influence on it, even if they don't use him directly.

     So..... I need teachers to interview! If anyone knows a creative writing teacher who they think might be willing to chat with me, could you please post a comment with their name? If it's a BYU teacher, I can just look up their information in the directory. I also think it might add a neat dynamic to find a few teachers of maybe a high school level creative writing class, but I would need contact information on those.

      Thank you!!

Imitation: The Sincerest Form of Flattery

As I’ve been looking through information on teaching creative writing (philosophies, techniques, etc.), I’m finding that the range of approaches is just about as wide as the range of literature that exists in the world. So I’ve decided to focus just on those approaches that I feel can be learned from Shakespeare.

Since Shakespeare really said so little, it is difficult to pinpoint what his exact creative writing methods and philosophies were. With that being the case, however, it seems to me that the best way to learn creative writing from him is through imitation.

The first step of this is to identify which of Shakespeare’s attributes as a writer are worth emulating. Once I can identify the areas of strength, then I can build a more focused method of emulating those attributes.

I found an article online which, although it was pretty informal, I felt did a good job of this. The areas of Shakespeare’s expertise that this article points out are,

          1)   A large vocabulary

          2)      Playing with words, and inventing new words and phrases

          3)      The “common touch”

          4)      Knowledge of great literature, orators, actors and “the popular”

          5)      Living with passion

          6)      Writing!

I really liked this outline of basic strengths to emulate. The article goes on to outline ideas for cultivating these strengths, but I think I’d like to take each one and study it just a little more in depth, and come up with the ways I think would work best based on my research.

If anyone has a brilliant idea of any additional areas of strength that really should be added to this list, please let me know!!

*Just as a side note, I’d like to apologize for my delay in posting about my research. I once again find myself really struggling to find resources on the topic that interests me. (Thanks to those who have given me suggestions, by the way, I really appreciate the help!)

Shakespeare and Creative Writing: My Revised Plan

So... thus far, I have found myself really floundering with my direction on this research project. I was having trouble finding sources, and the little I did find left me with very little interest, or drive to really go anywhere with it.

As a result, I have decided to revise my focus a little bit, and make it more structured. My new idea is, rather than trying to scrape up Shakespeare’s own opinions on writing, I would like to study out how his work has been used specifically in the teaching of Creative Writing in various contexts.

I was looking at some of my peers’ blogs and found a post by Joanna Barker (which, interestingly enough, was inspired by another class member’s blog; yay for social learning!). She had decided to map out the rest of the semester with her study/research plan, much like we did with the first half of the semester’s reading plan. That had helped me a lot during those weeks, so the light bulb turned on and I decided to map out my plan for the rest of the semester. I’m hoping that this will both keep me on track as far as pace, and also give a lot better structure to my research.

Here is my plan to have done and blogged about by each class day:

• Fri. Mar. 11: Timeline of the teaching of Creative Writing, and how it relates to modern teaching of Creative Writing
• Mon. Mar. 14: Go through and note the use of Shakespeare throughout the timeline
• Wed. Mar. 16: Learn more in-depth about current teaching of Creative Writing, what methods are used, etc.
• Fri. Mar. 18: Study the use of Shakespeare in teaching writing skills/methods
• Mon. Mar. 21: Study the use of Shakespeare in teaching the creative process
• Wed. Mar. 23: Study the use of Shakespeare in teaching outcome goals of creative writing
• Fri. Mar. 24: Study the use of Shakespeare in teaching literary ideals, or what makes good writing
• Mon. Mar. 28: Sift through and decide which of those uses I agree with or think is valuable, and why
• Wed. Mar. 30: Arrange for a few interviews (over email or in person) with teachers of Creative Writing at BYU, and write my interview questions (this I will try to start in earlier weeks, but have finalized by this date)
• Fri. Apr. 1: Hopefully have said interviews completed, and compile results
• Mon. Apr 4: Analysis of my results, and how they match up or don’t match up with my previous research
• Wed. Apr 6: Design an outline of my own Creative Writing course, based around how I would use Shakespeare for each genre
• Fri. Apr. 8: Finish/refine my course outline ideas

The week of the 11^th to the 13^th I am leaving for the finalizing, refining, and finishing of my research project, with guidance from Dr. Burton.

*If any of you have any suggestions, thoughts, or ideas about this plan (what you think will work well, what I should possibly reconsider, etc.) I would love to hear them. Thank you!!

The Mystery of Shakespeare's Opinions

Well, I have begun my research, and so far learned one very profound truth; outside of his plays and poems, Shakespeare really didn’t say much. Or if he did, we don’t know about it.

I went to the library today and got a couple of books to look through that looked like they might help me with my topic, but it’s really looking like the best I’ll be able to do is to research what people think Shakespeare’s opinions were on writing, etc. Pretty much everything we know about Shakespeare’s opinions on writing are just based on what we can infer from his actual writing, specifically looking at passages where the topic of writing comes up. For example, several of his sonnets talk about poetry, and what it is.

The first book I’ve been able to look at is called “Shakespeare’s Ideas”, by David Bevington. It actually covers a pretty broad range of topics (some of which may be useful and interesting to others in the class). But one chapter in particular focuses on Shakespeare’s ideas on writing and acting. So far, this is the closest I’ve been able to find to my actual topic of interest.

I still haven’t had the chance to read the whole chapter thoroughly but here are some ideas I found intriguing when I skimmed through it:

   There is a quote on page 74 of the book that says, “Shakespeare’s utterances about his craft as writer, both implicit and explicit, take it for granted that poetry and drama alike serve as important guides to human conduct.” Interesting idea.

 The title of the chapter is “Hold the mirror up to nature”, which of course comes from Shakespeare’s own writing. I also find this idea of writing to imitate or portray nature, or the world we live in, very interesting.

That’s all I’ve been able to come up with so far, but I’m excited to keep digging. J

Research Ideas

I’ve had kind of a hard time deciding what to focus my research on. I wanted to do it on something that really interests me, but everything I could think of was not specific enough. I was looking through my blog posts, and realized that my favorite ones were the ones where I applied my own love of creative writing to my study of Shakespeare.

I’ve been studying some of Shakespeare and his contemporaries in my English 291 class, and I’ve noticed that a lot of writers around that time tended to voice their personal opinions about what makes good writing. As I was thinking about that, it made me really curious to see whether Shakespeare himself made any statements about that.

I’ve decided that I’d like to research Shakespeare’s opinions about creative writing. If I can’t find personal statements from Shakespeare himself, I’m hoping to find scholars’ conclusions to that end from studies of his works. Then I’d like to do a close reading of one of Shakespeare’s works, and analyze how I think those views are applied in it, and what I think that adds to its effectiveness in various ways.

Hopefully the final step here will be for me to do some kind of creative writing work myself in which I try to apply the literary ideas I’ve learned from Shakespeare. Now, this whole idea is subject to change, but for now, that’s what I have.

I spent some time looking through the bibliography of our textbook, and searching online a little bit for books I could look up at the library to begin my research. These are the ones I’ve found so far, and am planning to look up this week

1) Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 60, #4. Winter 2009 (his views on life and everything)

2) “Shakespeare’s Ideas”, David Bevington (1 chapter on his ideas on writing)

3) absoluteshakespeare.com (trivia about his education)

Hopefully these will give me a good start, and I’ll be finding more soon!

Personal Learning Progress Report

Learning Outcomes

I feel like I’ve done fairly well with meeting my goals, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I found myself kind of changing my original reading plan to give it more variety (for example, I didn’t end up sticking with the poetry/art gallery idea for every play because I wanted to experiment with other ideas). I met all my goals for what I would read (I finished all the plays), but I think I could have done better with my blogging about my experiences with them. I feel like the learning outcomes I’ve done a good job meeting are: Engaging Shakespeare Creatively (through poems, art, etc.), Sharing Shakespeare Meaningfully (in that I frequently discuss my experience with my peers—I could do better at capturing that in my blog), Gaining Shakespeare Literacy (in breadth and legacy particularly). I think I need to work a bit more on Analyzing Shakespeare Critically, as well as the performance and depth aspects of Shakespeare Literacy.

Reading and Research

I have read: Hamlet, Richard III, As You Like It, Othello, and the Tempest, and some of the sonnets. Other resources I’ve used have been online sources, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, Google searches, and the “No Fear Shakespeare” on Sparknotes. I also have used social resources, like when I asked my brother for his thoughts on Othello as an actor.

Personal Impact 

For me personally, my study of Shakespeare has been most engaging when I can discuss what I’m learning with friends, and when I can tie it in with my personal creative writing interests. (For example, my poetry post about Richard III made me feel much more connected with the text  and I really think that play will stick with me more deeply because I interacted with it.) I also am noticing that one of my favorite ways to read the text is to read it looking for ideas that can be universalized, or ways that the story taps in to the human experience in a deep way.

Personal Evaluation

I think I’ve done a really good job of improving my life-long learning skills, and tying the texts into my own thoughts and life in a powerful way. I think I could do better at researching and at tying in my experience to others in the class (linking, learning from others’ posts, tagging my posts with learning outcomes, etc.)

Peer Influence 

Jessica V: I find she tends to have really original ideas, and even posted an entire list of them, which I found really helpful and fun.

Martin M: Left a comment on my blog with a little bit deeper question than normal, which made me think and was fun to reply to.

Peer Blog Evaluation: Brooke R

Awesome job Brooke! Love your blog! (and your name too... :) 

Number of Posts: 21

Quality of Posts: I think she has done an excellent job at meeting the “two substantial posts weekly” standard.

A Strength: I feel like Brooke really does a good job of researching things and thinking of creative ways to look at Shakespeare. I really liked her “Beauty is Pain” blog post, because she showed that she had researched it, (while also putting in a pitch for the library and encouraged the rest of the class to do the same). It brought up an interesting view of the culture in Shakespeare’s time, which added depth to the things we’re studying. She also seems to be doing a really good job of connecting with peers.

Suggested Improvement: I noticed that Brooke had a lot of variety in her post topics. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it might be cool to tie some of them together in a broader theme or focus kind of thing. 

Shakespeare Through the Eyes of an Actor (Follow Up)

Guess what! My brother wrote back to me about his experience playing Othello in the Shakespeare festival! (Just for context, when he performed it, he actually only did the very end scene of the play, where Othello does his monologue, and then kills himself.)

Here’s the part of my email where I asked him for his thoughts on it:

 “I do have a kind of a random request... And if this is too like, pulls your brain out of the game, just lemme know and that's cool. But I am just about to read Othello in my Shakespeare class, and I just wondered if there was any way you could send me a little description of your experience with acting it, and playing that specific role. Like, did it change anything about how you look at life, or people, or did you feel some super intense emotion or not, and like, how much do you feel like you were able to put yourself in your characters shoes, those kinds of things... I just want to know how the story feels different from the perspective of someone who's acted it.”

And here is his reply:

"So Othello thoughts velocemente... I did feel really really enveloped in my role when I did it mostly because to perform an extreme part like that well, you have to try to feel at least a little of what they felt and put yourself in their shoes as best you can. To be honest after playing the role of Othello, I feel for the guy! like reading a story like that by itself leaves you feeling like okay that was kind of weird but playing the part helps you empathize (sypathize? hmmm) with him. Like his love for his wife really is freakishly awesome!! It's a kind of love that's strong enough to kind of steal away the common sense normal people have (like not to kill yourself and stuff). It's a deep love so completely real in the mind of Othello that life itself becomes secondary to the love he shares with his wife. So yeah obviously we would say that suicide isn't the best way to deal with tragedy but it illustrates a beautiful idea of how to live and love. (just handle bad outcomes less rashly you know?) any way those are my thoughts : )"

This was a really cool experience for me to see how acting affected my brother’s perspective on Othello. I think it’s interesting how he seems to feel more strongly about the deep love aspect of Othello himself, rather than his previous tragic downfall that lead to the tragedy in the first place. It seems to me that the scene he acted made a lot deeper impression on him than the rest of the story, which he only read or heard, because he only had to become that part of Othello. I think it makes sense, that since the deep love aspect is what the scene he played was all about, that emotion, and sympathy for Othello is what stuck. Putting ourselves in the characters shoes makes the story become about us too, and not just the characters, so it sticks.

Thinking about this whole idea has made me want to put myself in the characters’ shoes more as I read these plays. I think that if I could do that, there would be whole aspects of it, or themes embedded in it that I could never see any other way.

(Thanks to my little bro for taking the time to share some thoughts J)

The Willow Song

I have now finished one of the most heartbreaking tragedies that I have ever read. I’m not gonna lie, I almost cried twice when I got to the end of Othello! Shakespeare really did a fabulous job making this play moving and thought provoking. And within this most heartbreaking play, by far the most moving scene to me was the scene in which Desdemona sings the famous “Willow Song”.

                The song reminded me a lot of Ophelia’s Song in Hamlet, which interestingly was one of the most moving scenes for me in that play. It got me thinking a little bit about how often Shakespeare used music in his plays to express the emotions of the characters. They’re not always sad songs, some are happy, some are just drinking songs, but I think Shakespeare knew very well what he was doing when he put a song into his work.

                I decided to research it a little bit, and I found an interesting article on britannica.com, about the use of music in Shakespeare’s plays. The article included the following, taken from the Merchant of Venice (Act V, scene 1):

                Here will we sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

Such harmony is in immortal souls,

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

I loved this! It felt like a little look into Shakespeare’s head, and how he feels about music.The article also talks about music in many aspects of Shakespeare's life, and it's cool to see a little deeper into that element of his work. I think this little bit of research really made the Willow Song more meaningful for me.

It turns out that most of the melodies to the songs in his plays are unknown. But a lot of people have just taken his lyrics and adapted them according to their own interpretations. I decided to look on YouTube, and see what kinds of things people had done with the Willow Song. There were a lot of different versions, which was cool because with each melody that someone has come up with, there’s a little bit different tone, and you can kind of see a little bit into how that person might have experienced the scene differently from what I did.

Here are a couple different versions I found: The first is from the 1995 film of Othello, and the second is one of a set of five Shakespeare songs composed by Arthur Sullivan during 1863 and 1864. (I thought it was cool to get some from different time periods.)

Board Games and Tragedies

Random little fun-fact I found about Othello:

So, as I was kind of casually searching Google for interesting things on Othello, I generally got two kinds of results. Othello the Shakespeare play, and Othello the board game.

I played the board game Othello with my family growing up. It’s actually a fairly complex strategy game, sort of like chess. For those of you who haven’t played it, here’s a really watered down version of how it works.

• There are two players
• Each player has an equal number of double-sided tiles. One side of each tile is black and the other is white. One player is black and one is white.
• It’s set up on a green board, kind of like a chess board, with little squares to put the tiles in
• The goal is to end up with more tiles of your color on the board.
• The players take turns placing one tile on the board. Black must put tiles down with black facing up, and white must put down white facing up.
• When you when you “bookend” pieces of the other player (or get one of your color on both ends of a straight row, with the opponent’s color in between them), you turn them over, and “capture” them (they become your color).
• You take turns putting down one tile each until the board is full, and then whoever has the most of their color wins. (for a better explanation, click here)

So, I was naturally just kinda curious about whether there was any connection between the title of the game, and the play. I clicked on a link to a Wikipedia page, and discovered that the original game was called “Reversi”,  but was re-named by a Japanese game company. It said the following about the the selection of the new name for the game, “Othello”:

“The modern rule set used on the international tournament stage originated in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in the 1970s: the Japanese game company Tsukuda Original registered the game under the trademark name Othello. The name was selected as a reference to the Shakespearean play Othello, the Moor of Venice, referencing the conflict between the Moor Othello and Iago, who describes himself as "two faced" and more controversially, to the unfolding drama between Othello, who is black, and Desdemona, who is white. The green colour of the board is inspired by the image of the general Othello, valiantly leading his battle in a green field. It can also be likened to a jealousy competition (jealousy being the central theme in Shakespeare's play), since players engulf the pieces of the opponent, thereby turning them to their possession.”

What the?? Who knew? I was totally fascinated that a board game I’ve known about for years actually ties in pretty fabulously with one of Shakespeare’s greatest Tragedies!!

Anyway, just a little side-note really, but I thought it was interesting. J

Through the Eyes of an Actor (hopefully)

So, once upon a time, my little brother did a little Shakespeare acting. He actually had the chance to play the role of Othello in the Shakespeare festival. Since I am now reading and studying Othello, that suddenly means a bit more to me.

     He performed the scene in which Othello kills his wife, Desdemona, which has got to be one of the most heart wrenching scenes of all time! And I remember my brother doing a phenomenal job performing it. But the thing I loved the most about his performance was that the emotion in his face was not just an act. He was really feeling something! Every time I see an actor pull that off, it makes me want to pick their brain, and find out what it’s like; whether they really feel it that much or are just good fakers, and if it leaves a really lasting impact and makes them think or not…

     So, I have sent off an email to my brother (who is currently serving a mission in Rome), asking if he could tell me a little bit about his experience. I may not get a reply by the end of this week, but I’m really excited to see what he has to say. In the meantime, I’m going to look for any other sources I can find on that idea.

     Hopefully more to follow!

Shakespeare's Chick Flicks

Firstly, my apologies for my tardiness in posting for “As You Like It”. Better late than never though J

Secondly, I have discovered through reading “As You Like It” that Shakespeare invented the chick flick.

Okay, maybe not the inventor; but he had the romantic comedy thing down! I guess I kind of expected the comedies to be more straight funny type comedy. But I found that, while they are pretty dang hilarious, they also explore a lot of deeper issues. "As You Like It" isn't just a love story, and it isn't just a funny story; it's also a story about best friends, and about gender roles, and about family ties and family betrayals. I think that’s one of the reasons we girls like this whole “chick flick” thing. It’s funny and gives us our sappy-love-story fix, but also lets us work through the deeper emotions and struggles, and usually leaves us feeling just a little more hopeful. Pair that up with a bucket of ice cream, and we’re good to go!

I had originally planned to do a poetry collection for each play I read, but I could not, for the life of me, find any poems about “As You Like It”. I was, however, able to watch the 2006 Kenneth Branagh film version of the play. It worked out kind of perfectly actually, because I had just finished pondering the chick-flick-ness of the play, and then I actually got to watch it in chick flick format.

I really enjoyed the movie, but aside from just enjoying it, I was really surprised at how much insight it gave me into the play. Watching it performed added a whole new level of depth to it for me. On the flip side of that, however, there were some things that I thought were cheapened by the film, and had more depth in my own imagination. I decided to come up with a list of things I think were deepened or enhanced in my perspective, and things that were affected for the worse after watching the film version.

My Richard III Art Gallery

My second goal for Richard III was to create an Art Gallery based on my experience reading it. So here it is! Each picture has a link to where I found it, and a caption briefly explaining my thought process behind it.

This was my favorite painting that I found of Richard III. I really like how it captures his expression immediately after his dream of all the ghosts of his victims gives his conscience a little kick in the pants; seeing him wrestling with that was one of the things that made him seem most real and human, while most of the play, he is very hard to read into.

Poetic Expressions of Richard III

Cold Soul

(to Shakespeare’s Richard III)

It must be cold

there

in that dark

and (to me)

unfamiliar

place

where you live

(or don’t really

Live) but

shrivel

and warp

 inside until

you (finally)

die

like the many

you killed

heart and body

or tried to drag

(with you)

Down

to be company

for your misery

But instead,

they go

away

to a warm

and (to you)

unfamiliar

Place

Robbed (by you)

of life, but still

(though imperfect)

not

so soul dead

as you,

living wraith

and dying

man

You chose,

instead

(you wanted)

to stay

to live (or not really

Live)

in that cold

and dark

and (to me)

unfamiliar

place

where you (still)

are.

My first goal after reading Richard III was to find any neat poetry or songs either about Richard III, or that I thought expressed him well.

Shakespeare creates a lot of super deep, intriguing characters, and this Richard guy made me almost want to do a psychological profile on him; it was an interesting task trying to come up with words and phrases to describe him.

                As I searched online, I found some interesting poems, but I wasn’t finding a lot that I really loved. I started messing around with more creative phrases to search, and one of the first ones I tried was “poetry about cold souls”. A little weird maybe, but that was the best way I could think to describe this character. He is just cold… not even really raging evil, he’s almost… hollow. He seems to have absolutely no concept of the feelings of others; like a sociopath. Maybe that’s partly what makes him so creepy and so difficult for most of us to understand.

Well, searching “cold souls” didn’t get me much online either, but instead, it kind of inspired me to write my own poetic description of Richard III, which I’ve posted above.  I totally loved writing it, because it got me involved in thinking about, analyzing, and exploring my emotional experience of the play.

Here are a few of the other poems I found…

One last word on Hamlet...

I just wanted to throw in one last little note about my experience reading Hamlet, before I dive into Richard III.

I have a really good friend who I had kind of been discussing Hamlet with as I read it. We talked a lot about what is it that makes it really tragic, on a deeper level than just “everyone dies”.  One of the things we decided was that Ophelia is really one of the most tragic characters. Her death is part of that, but even more so, it’s the fact that she is what other people tell her she is.

I know this idea has been analyzed up one side and down the other by everyone and their dog, but I just kind of had a bit of a cool moment with it this past Sunday. I was showing a bunch of poems that I wrote to my friend, and a couple of my brothers, just gathering input and opinions and such. Someone had launched a discussion about a particular poem called “China Doll”, which goes something like this:

I am the One

with the porcelain skin

And the just-perfect chocolate curls

with the green glassy eyes

and the painted-on lips

and the pasted-on smile at the world

who is shaped to perfection

and dressed to please

and is made out of nothing

but glass

I am the One

who was so clearly made

to sit on a shelf

and be kept far away

from bubbly-rough children

and dirt-covered hands

and from hugs and kisses

and Life

Because, after all

I could break

I am the One

who was made

to be looked at

designed to be flawless

and meant to remain

Untouched

by bubbly-rough children

and dirt-covered hands

and by hugs and kisses

and Love

As we were talking about it, my friend suddenly looks at me with that “aha moment” face, and says, “You know what this poem makes me think of? It makes me think about Ophelia”. At first I was like, “Whaat?”, but then I looked over it again and realized that it kind of expresses a similar kind of pain as I imagine Ophelia struggling with; this idea of being put where you are by someone else, being what they want you to be, and that keeping you from really becoming who you want to be, or feeling the love you want to feel.

I didn’t write this poem with Ophelia in mind, and I know it’s not a perfect fit; but it was cool for me to realize that I can really make connections between feelings I have and ways I express them, and what I find in my study of Shakespeare. 

(Note: since I wasn't able to do a full blown art gallery for Hamlet, I thought I'd just include one of my favorite pieces. It's a creepy picture, I know, but I love how well it captures the tragic element of Ophelia's story.)

My Reading Plan

I have finally managed to put together my basic reading plan for the next 4 weeks of my life. I’m feeling like this will probably work better if I work on a little bit every day, so I’ve just made a list of what I hope to accomplish every day of the week, not just on the days we have class.

For these four plays, I’m going to start by focusing mainly on the “Shakespeare Literacy” learning outcomes for the class. I’ll be doing a lot with the “legacy” bit, by delving into various forms of art that people have used throughout history to express their feelings and/or experiences with Shakespeare’s work. I also hope to find and watch some sort of performed version for each of the plays (if anyone knows of a good version of any of these plays, I’d love suggestions!)

I’m also planning to jot down notes in my trusty

 little notebook about any insights or flashes of brilliant inspiration I happen to have as I’m reading. I’m hoping these will provide some groundwork for the “Analyze Critically” learning outcomes. Hopefully some of those will be coherent enough that you’ll be seeing them on my blog as I go along as well.

After I’ve gotten a more balanced grasp on the “breadth” of Shakespeare literacy, I’d like to choose one of the plays to delve into a bit deeper, and that’s when I hope to go more thoroughly into the critical analysis stuff, and start piecing my random notes together a bit better.

Okay, here’s my reading plan:

Week 4 – History

Richard III
     M  24: Read Act 1
     T  25: Read Acts 2-3
     W  26: Read Acts 3-4
     Th  27: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     F  28: Put together Music/Poetry collection for this play
     Sat  29: Watch a movie version of the play

Week 5 – Comedy

As You Like It
     M  31: Read Acts 1-2
     T  1: Read Acts 3-4 (Aloud with my younger brother and some friends)
     W  2: Read Act 5
     Th  3: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     F  4: Put together Music/Poetry collection for this play
     Sat  5: Watch a movie version of this play

Week 6 – Tragedy

Othello
     M  7: Read Acts 1-2
     T  8: Read Acts 3-4
     W  9: Read Act 5, Discuss with my dad
     Th  10: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     F  11: Put together Music/Poetry collection for this play
     Sat  12: Watch a movie version of the play (with a friend, discuss afterward)

Week 7 – Romance
The Tempest
     M  14: Read Act 1
     T  15: Read Acts 2-3
     W  16: Read Acts 4-5
     Th  17: Put together Music/Poetry collection, Musical performance by my younger brother and some of his choir friends (Possibly moved to Sat 19)
     F  18: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     Sat  19: Watch a movie version of the play

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are definitely dead.

I have now completed my first “trial” and found it to be “error”.

As one of my first outside sources to try using in my study of Hamlet, I decided to watch the famed video, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”. I was interested in seeing it, not only because it had been mentioned in class, but because ever since Junior High (ish), I have heard it mentioned by my dad. My dad is something of a Renaissance man and a certifiable closet English nerd. He's described it as a hilarious little spoof. Naturally, I was curious about it, and, as we are now reading Hamlet, I thought this would be a good time to satisfy my curiosity.

Now why, you may be asking yourself, was this “trial” an “error”? First I’d like to put forth my disclaimer; the film was in fact pretty darn funny, and I did enjoy watching it. But watching it made me realize something; funny is just not what gets me excited about Shakespeare.

It sometimes seems to me that there is almost a fad in the world of taking anything well known, be it literature, art, people, or what have you, and “spoofing” it, or making a joke of it. Now, I do enjoy those, especially the ones that can maintain the intelligent side of the humor; it's entertaining and fun. But for me, too much of that kind of that sarcastic interpretation style becomes very draining, and kind of dulls the shine of the sincerity in which a work was originally put forth. I think the thing that really makes literature fascinating to me is when I can delve into the true, sincere emotion of the work, and connect to something I find there on a deep level. (How cool is it that I’m learning about myself and not just Shakespeare here? J)

So, from this my first trial and error, I have decided that for my own personal exploration of Shakespeare this semester, I am going to try and veer away from the “spoof” route, and try to focus more on studying the more emotional and serious aspects. I think that, as I mentioned in my first post, looking at various kinds of art expressions of Shakespeare will be where I explore next.

How Did I Read Hamlet?!?

Today in class Dr. Burton asked us an interesting question. He stood up, crossed his arms over his chest, swept the class with his piercing gaze and asked, “How did you read Hamlet?”

Well, here’s my confession. How did I read Hamlet? I simply opened the book and read it. Why did I do this you might ask? Well, I did it because in virtually every other class I have taken at BYU, that is simply how reading is done. So you can imagine my surprise when Dr. Burton stands up and demands to know how we read it.

Well, because this was somewhat new to my poor academic-lemming way of thinking, I was very intrigued to learn just what other ways there were to read a Shakespeare play, or anything for that matter.

Together, the class came up with some ideas. Some of them involved the use of the internet and the media. Some involved interaction with other people, and some a more deep interaction with our own thought processes. As I listened to and thought about the ideas being presented, I was struck with a very interesting thought.  Some of the “hows” the class came up are things that I actually did do in my reading. For example; summarizing a scene to clarify it in your mind, imagining a performance of what you’re reading, or even coming up with works of art to represent what you’re reading. These were all things that my mind tried to do before I shut it down so I could finish the assignment. How sad that my first instinct was to turn that voice off. And yet, how amazing to discover that this drive for a deeper, richer experience is already inside me, just waiting to be channeled.

This little personal epiphany has led me to want to establish some concrete goals for this class in order to help that little English nerd inside me to blossom and bloom. For now, I have listed some of the things from our class discussion that jumped out at me. This list may change and adapt as the semester goes on, but for now here are some things I would like to do with Shakespeare.

n  Find great works of art that represent my experience with each play/work we read

n  View multiple (at least 3) performances of one of the plays we read

n  Memorize one of the sonnets

n  Create my own piece of artwork based on one of the works we read

n  Discuss what I’m learning in person with someone else for each work we read

I am really excited to find new and interesting ways to meet all the learning outcomes for this class, both from trial and error, and from seeing what the other students are doing to meet them; I'm excited to see what new possibilities will open up as I become my own teacher. I'm looking forward to discovering Shakespeare for myself.

A Little Bit About Me

My name is Brooke Knutson and I am an English geek. More specifically, a creative writing junkie. I love literature and stories and poetry; I love looking for deep meanings in things that were probably never meant to be deep, and I love it when I find depth there. I also happen to love drawing, painting and singing. I love colors, and sunsets, and butterfly wings. I love learning more about the world and about myself, and I am excited to see what new discoveries this semester will bring. J