Shakespeareance with Aubrie

I realized yesterday that I spent about a half hour on Aubrie's blog looking at her projects and designs and I didn't even mention that on my blog.

Aubrie really seemed to connect with Shakespeare. She focused the majority of her efforts on the pop culture/creative side, but there was evidence that she did her homework and did more than just skim the plays. Her drawings were really spot on. They showed a lot of talent and thought. The course objectives that she excelled in were connecting Shakespeare creatively  and critically. She also used her new found digital skills to upload and put her Shakespeare drawings on the web. She didn't really focus on the scholarly aspect, but her research into the pop culture side shows that she did enjoy and work hard to understand Shakespeare more throughly, especially how he applies to today.

Re-purposed and doing just fine

I wanted to share a little bit more about my experience with the re-purposed paper. At first I really had no idea what I wanted to do, but talking with Professor Burton and Kaleigh really helped push me in a good direction. I knew I wanted to make a video, because I really enjoy making them and I knew that it would be a good medium. I also knew I wanted it to be interesting and engaging for anyone who watched it. It hit me as I was watching Modern Family one afternoon that I should make a mock-umentary. It's only a mock documentary because I wanted it to be more entertaining than what I imagine a real documentary being and I didn't document it as I was actually writing my paper. I only wanted to show the digital media side instead of the process as a whole. So it wasn't exactly true to form, hence mock-umentary.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I really like my end product. I think it is exactly what I wanted. Especially when Dr. Burton asked if he could use it as an example for a lecture. I was on cloud nine...I've never had a teacher actually want to keep something that I've created. (excepting a mask I made in 9th grade theater class, but still...) Mallory and the education majors also wanted to use my video in their presentation which I of course said yes too. I really meant what I said in my video, I did not want to make something that only I cared about. I wanted other people to like it too, and they did!

This re-purposed paper did exactly what I wanted it too. It incorporated all the things I love: Shakespeare, Acting, Creating, Filming, and Learning. It used the medium that I chose for a specific purpose and worked.

Semester Reflections

I remember filling out my goals at the start of the semester and now it seems unreal that the semester is over. I am now going to review how I think I met or did not meet my goals. The original blog is here: Start of the Semester Goals (Although I did just copy and paste my original blog for review here...)

Here I go...

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. I want to delve a little more into the historical side of things. I really do like history and could definitely find some good scholarly articles that explain more of the historical context. Since I have already read a few of Shakespeare's plays and know a little bit about their themes, genres, and ethical dimensions, I think that I study and focus on the themes a little closer. I want to do at least one blog post per play on this learning outcome. 
  ***This is my reflections color*** I did do this for most of the plays that I read. I focused more on The Taming of the Shrew, but I still did looked into these categories for the other plays. (I should have made a link for this category so I could find specific examples.) 
• Secondary Scholarship
  Develop familiarity with key secondary scholarship about and critical perspectives of Shakespeare's works. This is what I will do to find out my historical and contextual insights. I will use  blogging Shakespeare and the library resources to accomplish this.
  I spent a lot amount of time doing library research as well as online research for my research paper. Scholarship and critical perspectives of Shakespeare's work
• 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 feel like next week this one will be tackled. I did this with style. Research Paper 
• 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) Reading to understand all of the plays that are assigned/chosen in this class I did this
  b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work) I will choose my favorite of the plays and make drawbacks to it throughout the semester. Making sure that I can have enough knowledge to make critically engaging debates on it. I accomplished this with The Taming of the Shrew. I also really did have a debate on this. Trailer Video
  c. Performance (stage and screen) This one won't be hard, I performed Romeo and Juliet last fall and I love seeing different performances. I want to watch 2-3 productions of different plays and analyze them critically: theme, language, cultural. How well do they stay with the written script, what is taken out either for time or poor judgment. I watched several productions and analyzed them. I watched: Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Kiss Me Kate- on video. I also watched two live performances- The Merchant of Venice and Love's Labor's Lost. 
  d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture) I want to watch at least one loose interpretation of Shakespeare and analyze it. I want to see if it held true to any of Shakespeare's themes or devices despite the contemporary aspect. I also want to 'pin' everything I find on Shakespeare. I did manage to watch a loose interpretation, which helped me with my paper and then I also pinned a lot of the stuff I found on Shakespeare. 
• 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 already mentioned this in the last section, but I want to do this with 2-3 productions of Shakespeare's plays and one loose interpretation. Starting with Henry V. I definitely did this one. Kiss Me Kate was the loose interpretation. I also analyzed Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, and Love's Labors Lost.
• 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
  
  
  a. Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video) I definitely will do this, but I'm not sure that anybody really wants to see me perform Shakespeare. I did this in my Modern College video. In the end I  recited some Shakespeare (someday I'll be famous--jk).
  b. Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music) I could definitely do this one, I am a master with crayons. Well I consider my projects to have covered this, but I really wis
  c. Collaborative creative project I think we have one of these at the end of the semester... I will again say that the re-purposed paper and the teaser trailer accomplished this one.
• 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. I believe this is due in Feb. and I will definitely blog about it. I already posted a link to this...somewhere...
  b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing check, already doing this, but to set a goal I will at least do this 3 times a week. I did not meet this one completely on the terms I suggested. Sometimes I blogged more, but then as I started spending more time on the paper and projects, I blogged less than I probably should have.
  c. Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class. My husband will not like this one, but I will share with him anyway. I need to practice my creative performance on someone first anyway...I accomplished this in and out of class. My husband read my papers and helped me with my projects and I posted them so I could get feedback from the class too.
• 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.
  With the goals I have set for the other categories this one will be used as a means to accomplish them. My Modern College project that I did analyzed my method for this class. It is a very effective means to showcase what I have learned from digital media.
  
  
  
  
  Overall, I think I did really well. I learned a lot about digital literacy, Shakespeare, and myself and I was able to cohesively make project that I think shows this. This has been one of my favorite classes. I have had to stretch myself and I have proved to myself that I can do what I set my mind to do. I am very happy with the place I've come to at the end of this class.

Mikhaela and Kayla present: Our Trailer Extraordinaire!

I am finally posting my and Kayla's trailer video! I think this format will really get people interested in our papers/our repurposed content. As you can tell the only things missing are the links to our papers/repurposed content, but that is because I am still waiting on Kayla to send me her information. I decided to go ahead and post this since it is finished besides that. Please give me your input. I really value constructive criticism.

Modern College-Shakespeare Style

I have finally finished my repurposed project and here it is: Modern College
If you would like to have a look at the original paper take a look: A Cated Kate

It feels so refreshing to be finished. I have worked some long hours trying to get this as close to perfect as possible. I hope there aren't any major issues I will have to fix. I feel like it is in a good place.

Comparable Inspirations

I tried to make my idea somewhat original and so my original thought was that I couldn't find any comparable media to show where my inspiration came from. I realized though that it isn't as original as I had planned. First of all my whole idea was pretty much stolen from the show Modern Family to begin with. Their purpose is to legitimize different family dynamics in a mock documentary...which is what I wanted to do. I wanted to legitimize ideas of researching for research papers in a humorous way...ie a mock documentary.

This is an example of my Modern Family inspiration.

Another video that is comparable on a humorous level is this video:

This is another example of taking a common and loved media device and using it to create an informative video. Although this one is less than exact in it's information...

Blogging Shakespeare is a site that explores Shakespeare through the medium of blogging. They use resources that are not considered legitimate sources, like blogs and vlogs to explore Shakespeare related topics.

I just found this brilliant video where a women discusses whether or not Kate is a shrew and gives evidence that would satisfy both: 

Editing Thoughts

I feel like my video is in a good place as it is. It is effective and well produced. I got the bulk of what I wanted to say down, but there is room for improvement. I'm a perfectionist at heart and so I want my video to be well done. So here is the list of what I am going to improve this weekend:

-add in more Shakespeare
-show my progress as I was working on my paper
-use a couple Shakespeare quotes
-add in text over video
-clean up sound
-try and rerecord the soundtrack to match the shots
-shoot new out-of-ideas scenes
-explain Social Proof more explicitly
-use the website: bloggingshakespeare.com (shakespeare bites back)
-http://www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-Shakespeare/Shakespeare-Links.cfm (use this too)


We will work from there...

I will win this!

I wanted to have a teaser trailer for my research paper: I did it with Kayla,a girl in my class, because we took the opposite view. I think it really strengthens both of our papers because people can see both sides and are more intrigued at the proof for each. Well without further ado: My 90 second video

modern college: step one

My husband and I filmed on Tuesday and Wednesday night I did some editing. After editing I realized that I needed to film some more footage and cut out a lot of unnecessary dialogue I give, but I tried to get up a first version. It's still a little long too, but a lot of it is because I put a blooper reel at the end. Please watch and give me feedback. I want this to be a good video and I need responses to help me do that.

Loving Love's Labor's Lost

I went to see Love's Labor's Lost at Brigham Young University. BYU always has brilliant productions. They put many hours into research and execution. The whole theater was a step into the 1940's. It incorporated the audience and really seemed to integrate everything together pretty well.

I found the acting to be pretty fantastic. Each character knew his/her Shakespearean role and had obviously studied it, but was well grounded in his/her 1940's counterpart role. A couple of characters had distinct accents that really brought new dimension to the role and were intriguing to watch. Don Armado's modified character seemed to be an effective lynch pin between both worlds. He provided a good 1940's persona integrating Shakespearean dialogue. I was also a fan of Biron, I felt like he was entertaining to watch and he also brought good Shakespeare to the 1940's theme. He wasn't dry when he spoke. There was life and color. I can only say that about only a couple of the characters, because most of them seemed to  become too dry and irritable to listen to. It's hard to create engaging Shakespeare because it is so easy to lose the momentum and movement behind it. This production did a very good job of keeping the pace and engaging the audience within it.

When I saw the production I kept thinking could I use this in my own project. It doesn't really tie into my paper since I looked at The Taming of the Shrew exclusively, but I definitely could have used this production of Love's Labor's Lost to talk about the influence that Shakespeare gives women. The women in this play had large roles. I was pleasantly surprised to see them taking up the stage, even when the characters are actually men, because they worked pretty well within the play. They played a trick on the men when the men sought to trick the women. It wasn't one-sided, but the women were very influential in the storyline. In the end when they said they wouldn't marry the men until the war was over, the men were so smitten with the women that they would have agreed to anything. The whole play was about the power that women held over men...now that I think about it, this play would have worked really well with my thesis.

Targeting

So for my "Market Study" I could use a bit of help. I am going to post a prototype of my project too, I just plan on making it kind of tech heavy and that will take a while. So what I think I will do is post it in sections. So I'll post maybe the bare-bones video feed, then I'll post a prototype with the added effects and then I'll post a final video. That way everyone can see the process I took to create my video.

BUT like I said I need a little help with the study. I know I want to target students and through the students their parents. I also need to establish credibility so I think that having students find my video on this blog will do that. The students will be able to say a college student produced a video about a new way to start and help validate research papers. That way their is credibility, I will be using technology as my medium and I will show how I, and maybe someone else (if someone else would like to volunteer) used blogs and the internet to write my research paper.

I want to target:

Texas Students: I will send the link to my siblings and then get my siblings to forward the link to their friends. I will ask the students to consider showing the video to their parent to see if they find it credible.

Utah Students: I have cousins in the area too, I will try and get a different viewpoint from students and parents in Utah.

I want to branch out further. I've looked at a couple of education websites and maybe I should post it to Youtube.com/edu. They have a ton of videos for students.

Rosaline Squared

(Love's Labor's Lost Acts I-III)

I played Rosaline in BYU's production of Romeo and Juliet in 2010 and that has put a special spot in my heart for Shakespeare's characters named Rosaline. I did a lot of research for Romeo and Juliet's Rosaline and there were a lot of references to Rosaline from Love's Labor's Lost. It was thought that Shakespeare had a special place in his heart for Rosaline because she does show up in his later play. 

Rosaline is a secondary to Princess in LLL and Juliet in R&J. The Rosaline from LLL is supposed to be the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets who is speculated to be Shakespeare's mistress. In Romeo and Juliet she is this unattainable beauty, weakly praised, but dearly sought after. She isn't seen but only referred to. So I feel like they link up. If they are indeed representations of his mistress then it makes sense that she is seen as unattainable but desirous. In LLL there are complications because the scholars aren't supposed to be wooing. So the act of wooing Rosaline is wrongful because Berowne has made his promise to stay away from women. So she is like a mistress just in the aspect that he shouldn't be with women. I feel like the suspicion fits well within both contexts. I haven't read the poems about the 'dark lady' but I feel like they all fit in together. 

Love's Labor's Lost has many levels beneath the actual plotline which I like and hope to be able to explore into.

Re-purposed Paper

So my husband and I have been watching HGTV recently and so I decided to call this 2nd stage of my research paper, my re-purposed project. I wanted to actually produce a video of what I want to do, but unfortunately that will have to wait for next week. I will give a very detailed explanation of what I am thinking about doing right now.

I am addressing the taming of the net. I want to appeal first to students and then their parents. I want to address students whose parents have said things like, "blogs are never helpful for papers" and "get off the internet, you will never get your hw done". So I've decided that I want to create a reality tv show. I won't make it full length, but a 5 minute show. I will create credibility by establishing myself as a BYU student and I want to go over the steps that I used to create my own paper and show both students and parents how to effectively use the most of the internet to write a good paper. I still don't want to lose the Taming of the Shrew element and I haven't figured out how to put that in.

I will make it very creative with effects and staging. I hope to make it entertaining enough to watch and still credible. I've seen it done pretty well before, and so I just hope I can get close to that.

Vlo-Arg!

Alright, the title is a composite of vlog and argument. I found this funny as I am very tired. It took me forever to make this video. I had no idea that it would be so hard to condense my argument into a short video. I want to take less than two minutes, but at three and a half I couldn't figure out what else to leave out. I know that I want to do this again because I can see where I have room to improve, but it was a fun first effort.

Here you go: 

Kayla...This is 4 You

So I started just responding to your blog, but then I realized that I could just as efficiently write a new blog post about your project on my blog and you can take it or leave it.

First, I feel like 'abuse' in general is a big topic and although you limited your paper to Nicarthy's signs of abuse maybe if you focus on a specific type of abuse or a group that gets abused than that might make the forum more accessible. It might make it easier for certain abuse victims to feel secure in the information they are getting because it applies more specifically to them. On the other hand leaving it more open makes it easier to reach a huge group of people. So I guess it really depends on just how much detail you want to get into and where you want to go with this.

Second, I am still unclear about whether you want to just show examples of abuse to have people identify with or you are trying to help abuse victims by allowing them to first identify their problem and then giving them a literary 'solution'. Either way could work as long as it is clear that you are simply giving literary examples not real world examples, because that could be confusing.

Now after those are looked at you can decide the format for the project. I like your forum idea. It is a non-evasive way to have people identify a problem without actually having to explain it to someone in detail. It is an extremely popular form for surface 'diagnosing' both medical and psychological issues. So I think it has good potential. Another option more along the lines of what we were discussing in class is a short film clip or youtube video. I think that would be a good medium for your project, if you don't mind being on camera. You could pretend to be a psychologist and help abuse victims by giving a brief description of abuse suffered by a Shakespeare character and then maybe a real world solution. You could do a couple of these and maybe in the corner there is a "these are fictional situations" so that people who see this are aware. Then after your clip a screen that says contact Women's Abuse Hotline, if there is actually such a thing, or the Battered Women's Shelter or something. Or you could pretend to do a radio show where people 'call' in and you answer their questions with literary examples... Both of these ideas may be dumb, but they sound like a  lot of fun to me.

So here is a list of characters to look at as abuse victims and maybe abusers:
--Desdemona Abuse in Othello
--Twelfth Night's "Notorious Abuse" of Malvolio: Shame, Humorality, and Early Modern Spectatorship (if you've seen the loose adaptation, "She's the Man" the spider is named Malvolio and is the victim of abuse by everyone except the weird guy.)
--Kate, The Taming of the Shrew. While we differ significantly on opinions about the play as a whole, I do think the reason Kate is a shrew is because of abuse. Her father clearly dotes on Bianca more and the favoritism might have lead Kate to act out inappropriately.
--Ariel, The Tempest. (Maybe, I'd have to look this one over again to be sure that if would be categorized by your definition.)
--Antonio and Shylock, The Merchant of Venice. DUH :)
--Portia, The Merchant of Venice.
--Don Juan, Much Ado About Nothing.
--Lady Macbeth/Macbeth, Macbeth.
--3 daughters of King Lear (Goneril, Regan, Cordelia), King Lear. There is definitely abuse going on in this relationship
Romeo and Juliet against the Capulets and Montegues, Romeo and Juliet. (Nurse was a master manipulator in this play if I thinking of it correctly)
Ophelia in Hamlet, Hamlet. (eh maybe this doesn't work because it wasn't like anyone tried to abuse her purposefully...unless you say Hamlet with his mysterious 'wooing')


If I think of someone else, I will let you know.

A Cate Kate

A Cated Kate

I had my interview with Professor Burton on Friday and I must admit it is nerve-wracking to sit there and know that he is grading your paper right in front of you. (Although it is never as bad as I think it will be.)

Here is a slice of what we chatted about. The social aspect of the paper. I thought that it was beneficial because my peers really helped me get excited about my paper. I was able to bounce my paper ideas with a friend who has his masters in English and is getting his PHD. It really helped me solidify what I wanted my paper to be about. I didn't like trying to find a connection through blogs and other sights. I looked around for hours and ended up just getting more frustrated with the fruitless efforts.

We also talked about the response my paper had with my husband. I actually went home and asked my husband specifically how he thought my paper applied our relationship. He said that he is definitely like Petruchio trying to tame me for my benefit. I am a little too stubborn and I have a really specific way I like things done so I can see where he is coming from...lol Anyway it was nice to know that my husband, who is not into reading or english at all found something beneficial out of my paper.

Doctor Burton and I also talked about the next step in the class and how I can put my paper into a new medium and a new avenue. We discussed looking at my paper in terms of new media and the digital age. How my paper about the benefit of taming or making use of new technology will be able to help students for the future. We can show them the appropriate way to use the internet. I think this idea is really great and if anyone has any ideas on it I'd really like to talk with them. The other idea I had was a forum for marriage counseling between couples with one really dominant spouse. I could make a series of "How to..." blogs on working out that kind of relationship or stage a counseling session or make a forum. It could prove interesting.

Anyway I look forward to exploring all the new avenues open for me at this point.

Commentary

So my tweethis statement didn't appear to be as popular as my first about my paper, but the results were still helpful. One person commented: Your thesis is amazing. Just like in Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle takes on the male role by being more outspoken then most women of the time. Shakespeare similarily structures Taming the Shrew with I think Kate being an outspoken woman instead of the submissive lady usually presented :)

I was pleased with this response. Also I haven't received any feedback on my paper so far. I could really use some feedback guys :)

Thanks!

Take One

Here is the link to my Research Paper (fixed).

It is more than an outline and yet a less-than-complete first draft. So there are parts where I say, expound on this or insert quote here, or find that critic quote for this part. I do promise that I have textual and scholarly sources for my paper. I find that it works better for me to find sources then try to write a complete draft and then plug in my sources. That way I don't rely to heavily on them and they don't sway my paper in the wrong direction.

I originally had planned on submitting a complete first draft copy, but my husband and I went to the Draper temple tonight and got stuck in a lot of traffic. So unfortunately it is not as complete as I wanted it to be.

Tweething

(I tried to make a play on words in my post title-tweeting to tweething...alright kinda lame...)

Normally I find it extremely easy to condense ideas into a thesis, but I'm not quite sure how I want to do it with my research paper. So I will try and spell out my process for creating a good thesis/tweethis statement.

Yes, this will be stream-of-consciousness style:

tweethis-short, informative...maybe pithy

my current thesis reads more like a paragraph so I need to shrink it down--

Shakespeare gives more lines to the men in his plays, but the women hold more power. This paper focuses mainly on Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew.  Katherina who doesn’t hold the majority of the lines, but her stage presence and her role, as scripted by Shakespeare, give her more power as Petruchio. She is intelligent and spiteful in the beginning and she transforms in the end. But as she changes Petruchio also changes. By the end of the play, who knows who actually tamed who.

So let's keep Shakespeare, but get straight to the point. What am I proving?

In plays like The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare gives the women more power.

Ok, good. now why do I think this is true?

Because Katherina already exercises power of Petruchio as a woman, before she learns a better way to communicate her feelings. Petruchio may be showing her a better way to experience life ie taming her, but she is the one who decides to make the change. She holds power over herself, her family, and Petruchio.

wow...too wordy. I still have too much to say. What does it boil down to? My tweethis statement!

Plays like The Taming of the Shrew prove that despite the obvious preference for men Shakespeare gave women more power. (Thank you Kayleigh, I would never have reached this without you)

Research Paper : Phase 2

For my Shakespeare class we have been asked to publish on certain topics for our research paper. Here are the links to where I have fulfilled these requirements:

Performance Analysis: Elizabeth Taylor's The Taming of the Shrew
Annotated Bibliography: Annotated Bibliography
Digital Media/ Online Sources: Media Resources
Social Proof: http://taitmikhaela382.blogspot.com/2012/02/peachy-keen-research.html

Peachy Keen Research

I have been talking back and forth with Calvin who is a masters graduate going into his PHD program.He studied English and has focused on Shakespeare. He also did research in London and all over Europe where he viewed a ton of Shakespeare plays as well. Anyway, we have been talking about my paper and my topic and he keeps bouncing me to new ideas and to new conclusions to draw from my ideas. I've been very grateful to him as I move along with this research paper, he definitely helped me start moving in a positive direction.

Annotated Bibliography

I have spent a couple hours now browsing through the Shakespeare section of the library. I must say it restored my excitement in my research paper. There is nothing like looking through volumes of text and absorbing the information inside. I brought home a couple books and found some great information in the Shakespearean Criticism resource books. I didn't know if the criticism I found in the Shakespearean Criticism fit the categories I was specifically supposed to fill for this so I left it out. Also I couldn't get this post to format correctly. I couldn't make the 2nd line hang or get anymore than the first annotation to double space. Does anyone have any helpful hints?

____________________

Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1996. Print.

This book has sections on femininity vs masculinity and the correlation in Shakespeare. I have only briefly scanned the pages, but it looks promising. This book looks at a great variety of the female characters in Shakespeare. The comparison between the women and their male counterparts during the Renaissance will help me build a strong foundation for my arguement. I found this in my exploration of the Shakespeare section in the HBLL. 

Crocker, Holly A. (Holly Adryan). "Affective Resistance: Performing Passivity and Playing A-Part in The Taming of the Shrew." Shakespeare Quarterly 54.2 (2003): 142-59. Print.

Playing a-Part
This journal article is about the shew as a cultural part of different representations. It also highlights the difficulty in determining the relationship between Petruchio's taming and Katherina's behavior. It provides controversy to my idea that Katherina is tamed because she recognizes the need to change and not because she is conforming to a cultural ideal. I found this article while researching databases online.

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. Oxford [England: Oxford UP, 2005. Print. 

This book looks at women from Shakespeare's plays in varying historical contexts. It starts in the Renaissance all the way to contemporary Western culture. This book will help me establish the distinction between contemporary interpretations and original interpretations. I found this from an old student that Dr. Gideon helped me find.

Dash, Irene G. Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays. 2nd ed. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, 1997. Print.


This book looks at women's choices within the scope of his plays and analyzes them. This will help me look at the choices the character's make strictly within the scope of a play itself. I found this in the library shelves.

____________________________ My thesis: Shakespeare gives the women in his plays a more central part than what may at first be realized. They are more integral to the play than their scanty lines and short appearances seem to allow. Shakespeare is ahead of his time with his well rounded, witty, and intelligent women. He endows the females such as Katherina from The Taming of the Shrew with a greater and more influential role and the message of the play comes through her.

My

Pinning

I have added new things to my pinterest board-check it out! Pinteresting Shakespearean Ideas

Recent Discoveries

I have been diligently searching for relevant media representations of what I want to look at for my paper. I found this article that was posted today that I absolutely love. We Are Things Among Things The author of this piece discusses how woman can become frustrated to hear themselves acquainted to household objects or being objectified by Petruchio. Ewan Fernie says that "we are things among things". Shakespeare wasn't trying to objectify women, but relate them to the world around. When Petruchio says that Kate is "my goods, my chattels; she is my house, my household-stuff, my field, my barn, my horse, my ox, my ass, my anything" he is not trying to says that is worthless like those things. He is making her as important and more important than anything in his life up until that moment. My favorite lines so far come when Bianca says "that, being mad herself she is madly mated ..." and Gremio replies "I warrant him, Petruchio is kated" because it shows that they are the influence on each other. As much as Petruchio tames Kate, Kate tames Petruchio. From this article I also learned that the "kated" is play on words for the word cated, which means household stuff. So not only can I infer that the meaning is a double entendre...it really is.

In accordance with The Taming of the Shrew, I have found a wonderful clip from the musical Kiss Me Kate. Kiss Me Kate is a play within a play, just like the Taming of the Shrew, in which a broken couple acts out the parts of Kate and Petruchio. They used to date but they broke it off because they couldn't stop hurting each other. This is their lamenting song. I like it because it brings out the tender side of the characters that doesn't get seen full on during the actual play. This is the reason they are in pain and act shrewish and mean.

Oh and did I forget to mention, I have personally met Brian Stokes Mitchell. He is one of the coolest guys I have ever met and so humble for being so well known.

After much searching through new databases for cool stuff on my topic, I have come up with two things, these two books that I want to find in the library.

Women in the Age of Shakespeare

Shakespeare and Women

Elizabeth Taylor's The Taming of the Shrew

I just want to give a little update before I dive into the film I just watched. I emailed Dr. Siegfried and got an out of office response. She is on leave until August...so I'm again looking for someone else. This social discovery is giving me more trouble than anything else.

On another note I watched Claire Bloom's video on her life as Shakespeare female characters and it is a decent film. It shows lots of clips and still shots from the productions she was actually in and she gives insights into how she got her roles. She is a fascinating woman who gives amazing insight into the Shakespearean characters she has played. If you are writing on any of the female characters I would recommend watching the film. It's on Netflix.

Now onto the film adaptation I watched. 

I must say, I knew that the acting style for the 60's was going to be different from ours today, but I didn't bet on how different. I noticed that the promotion for the film and the opening credits were all directed towards Elizabeth Taylor. I felt good that the film would be more geared to a feminist viewing at that point. The 1940's-60's had a lot of pro-feminine ideas and the woman's rights movement was well underway. Women had the right to vote, so I wanted to see if a more feminist approach would be used. I paid very close attention to the acting during the performance because I wanted to see how much  of the focus was on Katherina and what happens when Petruchio 'tames' her.

I was pleased that the acting style was close to Singing in the Rain, a musical produced a few years earlier, because that is what I was expecting it to be similar too. It is a very theatrical performance that focused on very  distinct and over-exaggerated facial expressions. The movements were less life-like and more stylized. They represented an expression rather than being the expression. The comic relief was very stylized as well, but that is what you expect in this kind of film. They seemed to stay with the script as they spoke, but they took away  or de-emphasized the end rhymes which are prevalent in the script and harder to make natural. Even when they used rhyming verses, it was done so well that it was not extremely noticeable. All the actors seemed very grounded in the style of acting that they were performing. No one was more realistic than another. They seemed to all be around the same level of over-the-top.

Elizabeth Taylor seemed to have the most important role. She is the foremost character on the cover and her name appeared in the opening credits for her costume and hair dressing. All the other characters were under the general umbrella of production, Ms Taylor seemed to be the only one with all the special treatment. So needless to say I watched for how that trickled into the film itself. While Shakespeare devotes a greater amount of his play to Petruchio and some of the other male characters, I found that in this version Katherina definitely held the stage when she was on camera. Even if the other characters were talking and she was watching through a peep-hole, the film focused on Katherina at the window peering through instead of direct focus of the speaking actors. She didn't seem to really upstage them, she just had obvious preference. (and honestly, would you rather watch a couple smelly old men talk and brag or watch the pretty and entertaining Elizabeth Taylor?)

Ms Taylor delivered her lines with spite and bile when it was her turn to speak and she delivered all her lines very deliberately. She did a very good job of making the shrew dislike-able, but pitiable. I really felt for her when she was yelling at Bianca about all her lovers, I could hear and see the jealously on Katherina's face. It's easy to be the shrew and just be cruel and spiteful, but Elizabeth made much more go on inside the character. When Petruchio was boasting of his love for Katherina and chasing her around the cotton mill, I could feel the repulsion of Katherina. At the same time, she was a little pleased that she finally had a suitor and one that would stand up to her at that. She was curious and peeved at the same time, and those are hard emotions to express at the same time.

This film really went where I wanted it to, because at the end after Katherina has been broken, she hasn't lost her spirit. When I read it, I pictured this completely obedient Katherina, who still had a way with words, but who was very much tame. In this version, Katherina is still very feisty. She expresses that her husband is her lord and governor and she owes him everything, but when it is time to make their exit, she has already left. Petruchio kind of looks around stupidly before he manages to get his head together and chase after her. I liked that she retains her essential character, but becomes a much better human being. The almost loving/affectionate looks that she exchanges with Petruchio when they see the little children squabbling shows a new side to her.

I really don't believe that Shakespeare would have been anti-feminist if he had been around at this time. He has a way of creating these feisty and intelligent woman and by placing in their sphere of influence they have a huge affect. As much as Petruchio has tamed Katherina, she has tamed the bachelor in him.

Research Paper: Week 1

Part 1: exploration of topic
Part 2: textual analysis
Part 3: social interations

Socializing My Research

This is the hands down, hardest part for me. I don't like contacting people I don't know. So in this blog I will post my baby steps to jumping off and contacting new people.

I reached out on Facebook and got a surprising turn out of responses. All enthusiastic and from all over my Facebook friend spectrum. So I was relatively pleased. I also contacted an enthusiast friend/pre-grad student who I met a BYU, Calvin. He gave me some great ideas on directions I could take my paper as well as referred me to Dr.Siegfried. Who, from the looks of her information page, studies in the exact area I am looking in. So I will be giving her an email as soon as I solidify my topic.

To Tame a Shrew

• There are a couple of quotes that I have been looking at that have spurred me into writing about my research paper. The first one is from the Taming of the Shrew and it is Katherina and Petruchio. I find the back and forth dialogue between these two characters to be witty and jarring. It shows the remarkable wit and strength of Katherina as a character. She is quick thinking, intelligent, not afraid of holding her own and what's most impressive is that she isn't afraid to speak her mind. A trait that seems uncharacteristic for the time period and especially between strangers. She does not hide her disdain of Petruchio. Oh there is also foreshadowing in the end when Petruchio says that he will tame Kate.
• 
  
• ACT II Scene I:
• Katherina. Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing:
  They call me Katherine that do talk of me.1030

• Petruchio. You lie, in faith, for you are call'd plain Kate,
  And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst;
  But, Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,
  Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,
  For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate, 1035
  Take this of me, Kate of my consolation-
  Hearing thy mildness prais'd in every town,
  Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,
  Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,
  Myself am mov'd to woo thee for my wife.1040

• Katherina. Mov'd! in good time! Let him that mov'd you hither
  Remove you hence. I knew you at the first
  You were a moveable.

• Petruchio. Why, what's a moveable?

• Katherina. A join'd-stool.1045

• Petruchio. Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.

• Katherina. Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

• Petruchio. Women are made to bear, and so are you.

• Katherina. No such jade as you, if me you mean.

• Petruchio. Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee! 1050
  For, knowing thee to be but young and light-

• Katherina. Too light for such a swain as you to catch;
  And yet as heavy as my weight should be.

• Petruchio. Should be! should- buzz!

• Katherina. Well ta'en, and like a buzzard.1055

• Petruchio. O, slow-wing'd turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?

• Katherina. Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.

• Petruchio. Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.

• Katherina. If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

• Petruchio. My remedy is then to pluck it out.1060

• Katherina. Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.

• Petruchio. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?
  In his tail.

• Katherina. In his tongue.

• Petruchio. Whose tongue?1065

• Katherina. Yours, if you talk of tales; and so farewell.

• Petruchio. What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again,
  Good Kate; I am a gentleman.

• Katherina. That I'll try. [She strikes him]

• Petruchio. I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again.1070

• Katherina. So may you lose your arms.
  If you strike me, you are no gentleman;
  And if no gentleman, why then no arms.

• Petruchio. A herald, Kate? O, put me in thy books!

• Katherina. What is your crest- a coxcomb?1075

• Petruchio. A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.

• Katherina. No cock of mine: you crow too like a craven.

• Petruchio. Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour.

• Katherina. It is my fashion, when I see a crab.

• Petruchio. Why, here's no crab; and therefore look not sour.1080

• ...

• Petruchio. Marry, so I mean, sweet Katherine, in thy bed.
  And therefore, setting all this chat aside,
  Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented
  That you shall be my wife your dowry greed on; 1120
  And will you, nill you, I will marry you.
  Now, Kate, I am a husband for your turn;
  For, by this light, whereby I see thy beauty,
  Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well,
  Thou must be married to no man but me; 1125
  For I am he am born to tame you, Kate,
  And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate
  Conformable as other household Kates. 
  [Re-enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, and TRANIO]
  Here comes your father. Never make denial; 1130
  I must and will have Katherine to my wife.

Another quote that I have found was pointed out to me by a Shakespeare enthusiast/ old friend/ English Masters Graduate. I asked him about my topic and he gave me the name of a professor that I should talk to as well as some insight into more female characters. This quote is from Macbeth and it is Lady Macbeth speaking: 

She is calling on the evil spirits to "unsex" her or take away her feminine qualities that give her feelings and would stop her/Macbeth from killing the King. I know that this doesn't seem to fit with what I have been talking about earlier, but in order to become a conspirator in murder, she must get rid of her femininity, which makes me think that Shakespeare did not view women to be evil or capable of such corruption as they are. He reveres the woman figure for her powers of persuasion and intelligence, but he doesn't make them capable of what a man can do. He recognizes the separate spheres of manhood and womanhood that they have importance and two different purposes. He also says with characters like Portia and Viola, that they would be capable of being great 'men' but that is not their intended purpose in the world. Portia saving Bassanio in the court shows she is quite capable of handling herself in the public, but what she is really intended to do is reform Bassanio through their marriage (possibly the significance of the ring that she gives to Bassanio and demands as payment as the doctor)

 HEY! RELIGION! I just found a religious connection between the gospel and Shakespeare...now that was cool.

II've got way too many ideas again...I will have to narrow it down further...