What I learned from Shakespeare

After a semester of learning about Shakespeare through mainly digital means I am going to share what I learned.
1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy

• Breadth - As a class we read a number of plays: The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, and Love's Labor Lost.  It was interesting to look at how Shakespeare wrote different genres.  As a class we were able to discuss things and this gave me insights that I would not have had otherwise.  Most of this breadth took place at the beginning of the semester and so I was able to learn how to do in-text analysis.

• Depth - Individually we were required to write an 8-10 page paper and this allowed me to go more in-depth in my analysis of Shakespeare. I was most interested in the sources that inspired Shakespeare and so I learned a lot by comparing those sources to Shakespeare's texts.

• Performance - Although I was unable to attend the first play that was performed this semester, Henry V, I took advantage of BYU's adaptation of Love's Labor Lost.  It was fun to see a different modern approach to this script, especially because the focus of my Shakespeare studies this semester has been adaptation.

• Legacy - I have definitely come to appreciate Shakespeare's legacy through this course.  I have been interested in modern film adaptations of Shakespeare and the vast amount of adaptations is, in and of itself, a testament to Shakespeare's influence today.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically

• Textual analysis - I think that this is perhaps the area to which I gave the least emphasis.  Although I did study a number of texts, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Taming of the Shrew, I looked at these texts mainly in comparison to other works that had influenced them.  I did learn a little about why Shakespeare changed certain things however.

• Contextual analysis - This is where I focused the most.  My entire paper topic depended on me understanding where Shakespeare was coming from and what texts he borrowed from.  In the course of this study I became better acquainted with the Shakespeare's day.  I have a clearer vision of the society in which Shakespeare lived and also what else was going on around him.

• Analysis of Digital mediations - I feel like this was the primary aim of the course.  We read Shakespeare in a number of different formats.  I watched full Shakespeare films and also a lot of clips from other Shakespeare plays.  It was interesting to hear Dr. Burton discuss different aspects of Shakespeare productions that I had not noticed.

3. Engage Shakespeare creatively

• Performance - Well to begin I was able to watch a Shakespeare adaption on the stage and others on the screen. I was also able to do my own performance: the entire class made 90 second trailers that required us to ‘perform’ in front of a camera. While I was not acting, I did have to display a level of composure and discuss the things I had learned in a meaningful way.
• Individual creative work - I feel like I did a lot in this regard.  I worked closely with Jake because of the similarity of our paper topics.  Together we made a cartoon that depicts a discussion between two Shakespeare scholars.  We also made a blog together that documents a variety of creative ways that people are adapting academic papers for digital media.
• Collaborative creative Project - After a few tries and remakes the entire class decided upon a prezi presentation that connected all of our research and paper topics from the semester.  Each student made a 90 second trailer that introduces their topic and creative project. Here's mine:

4. Share Shakespeare meaningfully

• Formal writing - As I have already mentioned, I wrote a paper discussing Shakespeare's role as an adapter.  click here to check it out.
• Informal writing - All semester long I have been blogging about my experiences.  Starting in January you can follow my experiences with the blog.  I wasn't much of a blogger before this class and I still don't consider my self an avid blogger but it was a good experience to be exposed to blogging.
• Connecting - I was able to connect with Jake quite a bit due to the similarities in our paper topics but I was also able to connect to other students and see what they were doing and also connect to other people around the world, including one Shakespeare lover in Australia that I corresponded with.

5. Gain digital literacy

• Consume - I had never been a blogger as I have mentioned and consequently I did not visit or ready very many blogs.  I was amazed throughout the course to learn that there are so many Shakespeare bloggers.  I particularly liked a series of blogs by a person named Liz Dolimore that detailed the influence of other sources on Shakespeare's works.
• Create - We created a lot this semester.  The culmination of Jake and my efforts would have to be our blog documenting the possible ways to adapt academic work to the digital age.
• Connect - I was able to connect to two people outside of our class (mentioned above) and I was also able to see the comments of many of my class mates and I also commented on a number of their works.  I think the biggest way that I have connected, though, would be to the digital network of Shakespeare bloggers.  I now feel as if I were "in" the community because of the things that I have read and also the blogs that I have created.

My new, revised tweethis

What made Shakespeare great was his ability to take existing, popular stories and adapt them successfully to the stage.  We are now in the digital age and the same opportunity that Shakespeare had with the emergence of the new medium of the stage is now available to us through film and social media.

90 Second bananza

So Jake and I decided that there was just too much in each of our topics to combine and still stay under 90 seconds and so we decided to split up.



Click here to visit the blog that Jake and made to document the potential ways that the academic paper can be adapted for digital media.

Take 2

So Jake and I re-made our short 90 second video and I felt pretty good about it.  It is still pretty awkward to stand in front of a camera and talk as if there were a class there (or at least another human) but I am learning and it was more natural the second time.  Our aim was to try and model this after the popular TEDtalk format.  Jake put this up on his blog, so go check it out if you're interested.

Love's Labor Lost

Tuesday I went and saw a BYU student reproduction of Shakespeare's play Love's Labor Lost.  I've been reading the play with my Shakespeare class and so the original play was fresh in my mind.  I soon realized that the BYU version would not be exactly like Shakespeare's version.  The most notable difference was the era that the play was set in.  The director had adapted the plot of Love's Labor Lost for a World War II era military base as well as a night club next to the base.  I was obviously curious to discover the purpose for this change and by looking in the program I quickly discovered that the director had made the change in honor of her grandparents that had met during the war and reminded her of Biron and Rosaline.  I thought this was an interesting change and gave the play new meaning for me.  The only problem with this is that they tried to retain the Shakespearean language which in a 20th century setting I found to be pretty distracting.  I don't think it was just the language however.  The director also attempted to create the 1940's feel by including some terminology from what I assumed was war era Britain.  This combined with some of the Shakespearean language that she chose to retain caused further confusion.

One thing that I thought was very interesting was that at the beginning of the play the characters left the stage and interacted with the students.  I know that in Elizabethan era plays this type of interaction was quite common but nowadays it is not as much and I had never been to a play with that.  Unfortunately this did not last.  Costard said a prayer and then the play really began and there was no longer the interaction that I thought there would be.

I wanted to say one more thing about the costume and also set design.  I thought they were both fantastic.  The officer's uniforms were very convincing and the ladies looked excellent.  As for the set, I thought it was very well done.  By rigging everything up with ropes on stage they were able to make very smooth scene transitions.  In addition to this they also made the set very functional for a variety of situations so that they didn't have to rearrange too much as the play went on.

Market Research

So I have been wondering how I could do market research for my idea because other than the short video that Jake and I did explaining our project I don't have anything finished yet.  What I decided to do was figure out who our potential audience might be and then go find people in that audience and discuss the idea with them.  Since our idea has to do with film and ways to bring Shakespeare and all literature and creative writing into film in a better, more significant way I figured the best person to talk to would be a student from the film program.  I remembered that a friend that I roomed with my freshman year was in the program so I sought him out and explained the idea.  Here are some of the points that he brought up:

• There is a lack of talented writing in the film program because the students are trained on how to write.
• He agreed that short films are emerging as a dominant sub-genre in film.
• The youtube generation is becoming unsatisfied with the unprofessional quality of their videos and are seeking to improve their editing skills and video quality.
• Since the early 2000's the independent film movement has changed dramatically the way that Hollywood makes movies, resulting in a greater focus on varied shot selection, improved writing, improved acting, and more creative cinematography.  (there are exceptions obviously).
• He envisions a day when the film and English programs work hand in hand to create collaborative visual narratives.

Talking it over with him I became excited about the work that Jake and I have already started and I hope that by turning our academic papers into a more creative personal essay and then turning them into a short video could open the door of academic research to a greater audience.  By discussing themes in a short video that are usually reserved for a scholarly journal article, we will increase the chances that people outside of English students or teachers will see it and thus give our work greater influence and purpose. 

Video proposal

I worked on a video with Jake yesterday.  He put the video up on his blog so here is a link: link

My project proposal

After having read Jake's paper I saw how closely connected our papers were.  I also read his project proposal and liked the idea that he presented.  The main idea of my paper was looking at how Shakespeare skillfully adapted popular stories from his time and made them popular on the emerging medium of the stage.  I then wondered what could be borrowed from Shakespeare's technique to turn popular and/or compelling stories into films.  I have a strong interest in film and I feel that it is the best medium now available for storytelling.  How  ever, I have never seen an academic research paper turned into a creative video.  To me the idea is new and interesting and will definitely present some challenges.  After doing some brainstorming with Jake we feel that the best approach to turn our papers into a creative video would be to combine the ideas from our research papers (they are already closely connected) and turn it into a single personal essay.  From there it would be easier to create a video (probably narrated) presenting our main idea in the most popular and easily accessible medium of film.

Here is recap of our idea:
2 academic essays > 1 personal essay > 1 creative video

Cortnie's paper response

So I read Cortnie's paper and thought there were some very interesting ideas but I also saw some of the challenges I am facing with turning my paper into a creative project.  I have yet to read and respond to Jake's paper (sorry brother) but I will get to it and post a response to him as well.  Here is my response to Cortnie:

Hey Cortnie, I read your paper and your ideas about you could turn your academic essay into a piece of fanfiction.  I guess I am pretty confused about how we can turn our scholarly essays into something like that (that is kind of what Professor Burton suggested for my essay).  The academic papers do not have plot, characters, or setting and the only thing that I can think of would be to make that stuff up and then create dialogue between the characters discussing the main points of my paper.  What I really wanted to do was put the claim I made in my thesis into practice (try a modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play into film) which is something that you have already done with you Shakespeare fanfiction page.  I am just discussing my problems about the creative essay but if you are having the same problems then we can brainstorm together.  The only thing from you actual paper that might need some clarification is your assertion in your conclusion that "With this freedom, amateur authors develop a more pronounced method of interpretation towards Shakespeare, able to perform in-depth character creation (and thus analysis) and adaptation that points towards a scholarly nature. What amateur fanfiction writers are today will eventually become the professional scholars and adapters of tomorrow."   How is character creation the same as in-depth character analysis? How does it point towards a scholarly nature? (there is a lot of creativity but the examples you provided usually ignored key aspects of Shakespeare's plays and/or characters).  I can see how the amateur fanfiction writers could become prominent adapters in popular mediums such as the novel or film (or are you arguing that fanfiction itself will become the popular medium of tommorrow?) but I do not see how they will make the jump into the academic arena.

Adapting: Then and Now. (my paper).

One of the hardest things about my paper was trying to fit all of the ideas that I had while researching into 10 pages.  Some of the ideas were easily combined but some of them had to be left out of the paper completely.  In my interview Dr. Burton asked me to try and think of some ways that I could change or adapt the format of a screen play.  The reason for this is that a lot of what I talk about in my paper is Shakespeare's genius in adapting well-known stories for the stage- which was the emerging medium at the time.  Now, however, the most popular medium for telling stories is film and so I have been trying to figure out what Shakespeare did so well to adapt his sources for the stage in order to maybe know what could be done in adapting to film.  The screenplay is where these ideas would be written down but Dr. Burton also wanted to see what could be done to the screenplay itself to make it more interesting as a medium in and of itself.  I have given this a lot of thought and one thing that first occurred to me is that I would need to take advantage of the digital technology of the internet with links to video and pictures maybe just as a way to help whoever is reading the screenplay to catch the vision of the writer.  What I concluded about this after some thought is that that might be confusing because the screenplay comes before any footage of any kind is taken and so the writer would have to include links to things that most likely wasn't his work and also wasn't 100% how he imagined it in his head.

Since that approach would not work I tried to think of how the creative process of writing a screenplay could be improved.  When talked this over in a group, one friend suggested that it be a group process like through google docs much like how fan fiction is written and produced.  Someone would start with an idea and a rough sketch of what a movie would look like and then people could make changes and edit and suggest other modifications.  This way it would allow the creativity of a larger community shape the development of the screenplay.  I could try doing something like this for my creative project.  If I took something Shakespeare wrote and then tried to adapt it but left the adaptation open to others ideas then a lot could possibly be done that way.  I realize that this whole post was kind of a stream of consciousness because it was just me brainstorming but if you managed to follow it then I would like your comment or opinion.

Also here is a link to my paper:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Id2bM50ZvZeTKtKvJVEUaiOSK--B18KEWLUaPfWSmmw/edit

Finally my annotated bibliography

I was able to find some excellent sources that were very helpful in writing my paper.

Annotated Bibliography

Brunvand, Jan Harold. "The Folktale Origin of the Taming of the Shrew." Shakespeare Quarterly 1966: 345-59.  This article is very helpful because Jan Harold Brunvand discusses the masterful way that Shakespeare adapted a classic folktale into the Taming of the Shrew.  Since my topic is about the sources that Shakespeare used for his plays this seems very applicable and powerful.

Marchalonis, Shirley. "Medieval Symbols and the "Gesta Romanorum"." The Chaucer Review 1974: 311-9.  This article is mostly discussing prevalent symbolism during the medieval time period which doesn’t apply but it does give a lot information about the Gesta Romanorum from which Shakespeare borrowed to create his plays.

McKnight, George H. "Germanic Elements in the Story of King Horn." PMLA 15.2 (1900): pp. 221-232.  This article shows that there are a lot of wonderful stories in other literary histories that would be interesting to explore.

Muir, Kenneth. "Saxo and Hamlet." Shakespeare Quarterly 35.3 (1984): pp. 370-372.   This shows the parallels between Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the account given by Saxo Grammaticus.

Saxo, Grammaticus,d.ca.1204. The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus. Ed. Oliver Elton 1861-1945. and 1850-1904 F Powell (Frederick York). London, D. Nutt, 1894.   This shows the original work of Saxo Grammaticus translated into English and also includes commentary about the work by Elton and Powell.

Select Tales from the Gesta Romanorum. Ed. Charles Swan tr. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1887.  This gives more detail regarding the stories that were included in the Gesta Romanorum and also more information about the quantity of stories in this work and other works.

Sperber, Hans. "The Conundrums in Saxo's Hamlet Episode." PMLA 64.4 (1949): pp. 864-870. This is another article discussing the differences between the two Hamlet accounts.  This was helpful in understanding the changes that Shakespeare made.

Weiss, R. “Bandello's Fiction. an Examination of the Novelle.” The Modern Language Review, Jul., 1957, Vol.52(3), p.443-444, 1957.  This was a very informative article from which I got the majority of my information on Matteo Bandello.  It helped contrast his work with the later adaptations done by Shakespeare.

Tweethis Statement follow-up

Josh Cutler

Monday near Provo

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I finally received some excellent feedback from some of my facebook friends.  I'm a little late in posting these on my blog but they actually helped me a lot in my idea development for my paper.

 ·  · Share

• • 

    Chris-Allie Middleton How will studying authors that pre-date Shakespeare help widen and improve the source of inspiration for filmmakers and modern story tellers? A thesis needs to be direct and specific. I am no English major but it seems vague. What English level is this class?

    Monday at 9:50am · 
  • 

    Josh Cutler thanks for the feedback, I had write the thesis in 140 characters because it went on twitter as well. That's making it difficult to reach the level of specificity that I want.

    Monday at 10:03am · 
  • 

    Nate Middleton Don't listen to Chris. Listen to me

    Monday at 10:15am · 
  • 

    Josh Cutler Okay, I believe Nate.

    Monday at 11:03am · 
  • 

    Parker Walbeck Well Josh, as we all know it wasn't actually Shakespeare that wrote anything at all, but rather just the one who took credit for the plays written by the other dude in that movie we watched. So no, your thesis is skewed.

    Monday at 1:22pm · 
  • 

    Michael Miles Seems a little obvious to me maybe. If you study more people than shakespeare, then you will obviously have more inspiration for making adaptations simply because there is more stuff to get ideas from. The "better" ideas part sounds a little more arguable. Maybe you could go along the lines of "Those who don't look to pre-shakespearean works for ideas lack these specific benefits __________ because shakespeare only wrote about certain things/is not all inclusive in his ideas" something like that. It is a stronger sounding argument to say that shakespeare lacks certain things than it is to that you will have more ideas with more sources. I hope that made sense.

    Monday at 2:06pm · 
  • 

    Michael Miles PS do you have Dr Burton? This sounds like his doings.

    Monday at 2:09pm · 
  • 

    Laura Ann McArthur Are you saying that because Shakespeare had such a large impact on the English language that subsequent authors echo Shakespearean element? -Daniel McArthur

    Tuesday at 3:15pm via mobile · 
  • 

    Josh Cutler No, what I'm saying is that there are over 450 films that are either adapted or based upon Shakespeare plays. Screen writers have worked and reworked shakespeare's stories yet Shakespeare himself took a large portion of his work from the earlier work of poets, authors, and historians who included elements of fiction in their accounts. The point is that it seems like there is a lot of untapped literature that filmmakers could use for fresh ideas instead of just changing or reworking what Shakespeare wrote.

    Tuesday at 3:35pm · 

My Tweethis

I posted my thesis on twitter and Facebook.  Probably because I rarely post anything on twitter I did not get any responses back but I did actually get some helpful feedback through my Facebook post.  One friend told me that I need to make it more specific, while another friend gave some helpful suggestions about how I could possibly do that.  I had to limit my thesis to 140 characters so my thesis so the specificity of my thesis suffered a little bit because of that but I was able to confirm some of the thoughts that I had already had.

Annotated Bibliography

Works Cited

Brunvand, Jan Harold. "The Folktale Origin of the Taming of the Shrew." Shakespeare Quarterly 1966: 345-59. This paper discusses the folktales that Shakespeare used to write his play, Taming of the Shrew.  This has obvious application to my paper because it helped me study another play that Shakespeare took from an already existing story.

Marchalonis, Shirley. "Medieval Symbols and the "Gesta Romanorum"." The Chaucer Review 1974: 311-9. What was so helpful about this play was that discussion on the Gesta Romanorum, which is a collection of Italian stories.  Shakespeare used a lot of these stories for his plays.

McKnight, George H. "Germanic Elements in the Story of King Horn." PMLA 15.2 (1900): pp. 221-232.   This work was important because it shed light on the vast amount of old fiction that has not been used by Shakespeare or other writers.

Muir, Kenneth. "Saxo and Hamlet." Shakespeare Quarterly 35.3 (1984): pp. 370-372.  This article discusses the relationship between Shakespeare's Hamlet and the original work by Saxo Grammaticus.

Saxo, Grammaticus,d.ca.1204. The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus. Ed. Oliver Elton 1861-1945. and 1850-1904 F Powell (Frederick York). London, D. Nutt, 1894.   The paper details the works of Saxo Grammaticus and allows us to understand the connection between him and Shakespeare better.

Select Tales from the Gesta Romanorum. Ed. Charles Swan tr. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1887.  This is another paper that discusses the Gesta Romanorum and gave insight into the popularity and purpose of these stories that Shakespeare used. 

Sperber, Hans. "The Conundrums in Saxo's Hamlet Episode." PMLA 64.4 (1949): pp. 864-870.  Another work that discusses and compares Shakespeare's Hamlet and that of Saxo Grammaticus.  This was helpful because it emphasized some key differences in the works.

Weiss, R. “Bandello's Fiction. an Examination of the Novelle.” The Modern Language Review, Jul., 1957, Vol.52(3), p.443-444, 1957.  This was very important because it gave insight to the works of Mattello Bandello and all that he wrote.  He was a very important writer that pre-dates Shakespeare.

annotated bibliography

So I found a lot of good articles that could help my paper (some I read, others I haven't yet)  last week while on campus and I exported them to refworks but I couldn't access my refworks account once I was off campus.  I really liked what I had found and so I will give my bibliography tomorrow once I am back on campus.

My rough, rough draft and outline

Film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays are quite prevalent in popular culture.  Modern film makers and story tellers often use Shakespeare as a launching point for their own stories and films.  Some of our most famous modern stories are actually filled with Shakespearean plot elements.  From the obvious adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story to the elements of Hamlet and Richard III found in Disney’s The Lion King, the performing arts owe a great deal to Shakespeare.  This is not a novel idea; the many adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays have been well documented.  However, while considering all of these works influenced by William Shakespeare an important question comes to mind: where did Shakespeare receive his inspiration?  To better understand Shakespeare and his work I would like to examine the works of writers and historians that predate Shakespeare; namely Arthur Brooke, Saxo Grammaticus, and also the works contained in the Gesta Romanorum.  By examining the works that inspired Shakespeare we will widen the pool from which modern filmmakers and storytellers can draw for their own inspiration.

First body - Arthur Brooke

a. influence on Shakespeare

b. other works

c. other poets and/or play-writes of influence

c. potential for modern application

second body - Saxo Grammaticus

a. influence on Shakespeare

b. other writings

c. other early known world historians

d. potential for modern application

third body - Gesta Romanorum

a. influence on Shakespeare

b. influence on other authors of Shakespeare's time

c. other works like it

d. potential for modern application

fourth body

a. compare modern 'Shakespeare' adaptations with earlier, non-Shakespearean works

b. possible influence on Hollywood

conclusion

a. discuss what effect this has on Shakespeare

b. creative possibilities for modern story-tellers

Phase 2 progress report

So I am a little late in doing this but nevertheless it is now done.

1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy and here as well
so far in this course I have been exposed to more Shakespeare in more forms of media than I had ever been.  I have learned some historical facts of the Shakespearean era (like how politics could have influenced his writing) and also other works that could have been an influence to the Bard.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically / plus this one
With the increased interest that I have gained through my exposure to Shakespeare I have started reading his texts in a different way than I ever did.  I am trying to identify themes that were alluded to in Shakespeare blogs and other sites.

3. Engage Shakespeare creatively
I haven't done too much for the semesters creative project but I have been really interested with modern film adaptations of Shakespeare I would like to plan a project around that but I still need to do some brainstorming.  Part of this learning outcome, however, has been the many different ways that I have been able to enjoy Shakespeare this semester: text, audio, youtube videos, blogger's interpretations, comics etc

4. Share Shakespeare meaningfully
Apart from sharing ideas with other students in the class it has been fun to post on other blogs and receive their responses.  I didn't realize that there was so much digital chatter about Shakespeare everyday.

5. Gain digital literacy
Through this blog and the other blogs that I have found I now feel like I am part of a new learning community that I didn't know existed.  I now feel confident that I can go and find social proof for other academic essays that I undertake because, firstly, I know that it is out there and, secondly, I know some good sites that I can go to jump off to other sites.

My first response

I got my first response from one of the people I contacted.  Rod Marsden is an English/Shakespeare scholar from Australia.  His response was very informative and could possibly help anyone wanting to know more about things that may have influenced Shakespeare's writing (his contemporaries, religion, and/or societal factors).  Here is a link to his response: click on this and scroll down to the bottom

Progress Report

Exploration - So I have been looking for other writers and/or plays and stories that predated Shakespeare so that I could see if it were possible to re-attribute some of the credit that is given Shakespeare by modern film makers and storytellers.  I want to make it clear that I do not want to get into the whole controversy of whether or not Shakespeare wrote all that is given to him.  I do not doubt that and from what I have read the theory is not really founded on fact- just speculation.  What I wanted to do, instead, was see who was influencing Shakespeare as he wrote it and then hopefully this would allow us to give more value to the writings of other authors that either came before Shakespeare or were contemporaries of him.


Textual analysis - A helpful guide in analyzing some of Shakespeare's works was the blog of Liz Dollimore . She has researched over a dozen Shakespeare plays and provided examples of works that were written before Shakespeare's plays.  Using her researching I was able to go back and examine the same plays that she had to see for myself the similarities that existed.  There are slight differences of course but a lot of the major plot elements were unchanged in Shakespeare's plays.
 
Social Proof - Another source that has proved encouraging was an article that Kaleigh shared with me that talks mainly about the grammar in Shakespeare's time but what I found particularly compelling was a comment stating that Shakespeare's contemporaries probably were inventing new words and phrases at the same rate that Shakespeare was.  I have contacted the author of this article (Dr. Hope) as well as a Shakespeare scholar in Australia named Rod Mardsen that has been researching the development of the English language.  I have also contacted Liz Dollimore, the Shakespeare sources blogger, but I am still waiting to hear back.