Thompson
222 Shakespeare
Reading the Past
Description: People
sometimes have trouble reading and understanding Shakespeare, partly because,
according to Belsey, we can only find meaning in a text that makes sense to our
own context, or place in time and space.
For example, we now live in a culture that is not as interested in or
competent at textual literacy, but we have gained other forms of literacy, such
as visual or technological literacy.
These literacies all have conventions and forms, or what can be called
discursive formats, and they have established forms of dialogue or
scripts. One way of “Reading the Past”
is to translate a past literacy into one that is more familiar. This is just another way of saying, if you want
to communicate with someone, you have to speak their language.
Your
research goal is absolutely NOT to
demonstrate the universality of Shakespeare, universal themes of “mankind,” or
how the plays transcend time and having meaning for all people in all
places. This kind of essay will receive
a failing grade. Instead, I am asking
you to translate one form of discourse into another, to find ways to
communicate Shakespeare and early modern England by using forms more familiar
to the 21st century. But in order to do
that, you have to first understand the discourse that you are
“translating.” Then find a current
cultural form that you can use to create a bridge of meaning from past to
present.
Take
the Shakespeare play of your choice (including those we did in class) and
situate the discourse within a 21st century discursive model (10 pages). You can focus on other issues than we did in
class; in other words, you are not
limited to domestic and gender issues.
One
of the major things I will be looking for when evaluating these projects is how
well you can demonstrate intimate knowledge of the play, how complete your
early modern context is, and how well you work with your modern discursive
form. You should consistently quote
specifically from primary and secondary texts in order to support the intertext
you are describing. (sometimes in endnotes.
Your research project should be complete and thorough. It is not just an opinion paper, which means that you need to back up, illustrate, and explain what you mean with resources that strengthen your perspective. In addition to materials you may gather in other classes and the library, use the materials for this class. You can use any texts that you think will be helpful.
The
goal of the research project is to help you learn about a text, texts, or issue
for yourself. In order to complete this
assignment, you will need to: find
information, evaluate sources, construct a persuasive argument, and demonstrate
that the conventions and stages of formal research and writing in an upper
division English course.
• choose a play, or, pick an issue or topic
that interests you and then find plays which focus on that issue; don’t ask me
for ideas although I will be glad to discuss yours. In order to quickly survey Shakespeare’s
work, read through introductions in an anthology.
• find a current format to work with (talk
shows, films, CD programs, self-help literature, marital therapy, trials,
hypertext, for example)
• read your play(s) carefully and make sure you
understand what is being said. Take lots
of notes, mark places in the text where
you want to focus your project, circle key words, mark what you don’t
understand and start to analyze key passages.
Please ask for help at any point.
• read critical articles that discuss your play
in terms of the topic you are interested in (use Shakespeare Quarterly Annual Bibliography to start). Read background information that will provide
you with an informed opinion of the play you are discussing (social history,
political history, etc.), as well as the discursive form you are translating
into.
• write your research proposal
• translate the play, not literally the lines,
but the forms, the meanings, the complexities, the problems, the contradictions,
the pleasures, etc.
• typed, 10 pages or approximately 3000 words
(use word count feature on computer).
You can go over the page/word limit if you want to.
• submit your project in a booklet that
includes in exactly this order: a table
of contents with page numbers; the final draft; your approved proposal and a
discussion of any changes made in your proposal as you worked through the
research; and your notes, drafts and revisions (optional). I will not accept your assignment without
each of these items.
• Option:
if you have the skills and interest, you are more than welcome and
encouraged to submit an electronic research project if you wish. I can read both pc and Mac documents. If you are submitting your project
electronically, please give me a disc that you have double checked. I can’t evaluate something that I can’t read.
• be sure that your essay is titled and all
pages are numbered
• use MLA in-text documentation
• this essay must be written for this
course. Using an old essay or an essay
that you are writing for
another
course this semester is plagiarism, unless your have the permission of both
professors.
• make a copy before turning in
Due dates:
• developed
description due for class report: Sept
25
• proposals due including annotated
bibliography: Oct. 9
• proposals returned: Oct.
14
• final projects due: day
of presentation
The Proposal
The proposal represents the background work and research that you must do in order to be knowledgeable about the play or subject that you are working on. Being clever on the final product will not earn a passing grade for the entire project. You must submit, on the specified date, a proposal that addresses each of the following:
• a developed
description of your project
• why you chose
this topic or text (your interest)
• what you
already know about your subject
• what you
don’t know about your subject
• specifically how you will locate the
information that you need to know (the answer isn’t “go to the library or use
the internet”)
• how your
project is connected to the larger early modern English context
• what other members of the class share your
area of research? List names and form
research groups
• an annotated
bibliography:
• 3 non-fiction general background sources on
your topic that provide historical
and sociological context, published no earlier than
1980
• 4 critical
articles published no earlier than 1990
• you can use
any newspaper or popular magazine articles that you find
helpful, in addition to the sources listed above.
• be very careful of internet sources for
research purposes (they may not be scholarly, reviewed, or necessarily reliable). You are required to use a total of seven
scholarly sources, which are not usually located in electronic form.
This
proposal must be typed, formal, revised, and edited. You will not be able to turn in your final
project without an approved proposal submitted on time.
Suggested Procedures:
• find out if anyone else in the class wants to
collaborate on reading, copying, discussing texts.
• remember to use video tapes, microfilm, or books. Interlibrary loan takes time. If you haven't gotten the sources you need to
complete your work, then you haven't done your part as a researcher.
• survey the texts you want to use to see what
they contain. Some of them will be too
long for you to use completely, so you may need to make some choices about your
focus. You do not necessarily have to read the entire work.
• once you are familiar with your text choices,
begin thinking about and making connections.
You may or may not know exactly where you are going or which exact texts
you want to use before you start on your research. The process is discovery, and you are not
expected to know the answers before you start.
• spend time browsing in the library in
sections that are appropriate to your topic.
You can find out a great deal more this way than you can by just sitting
at a computer terminal.