Well, now that my cringeworthy lack of Shakespearean familiarity is announced to the world, the only thing to do is to find a way to cure my scarcity of knowledge. And that is by.... (drum roll please)..... developing a personal learning plan! Now, as exciting as this is, please refrain from randomly cheering or crying out with joy so that your roommates, significant others, or strangers at the library do not think English majors are weirder than they already are.
Gain Shakespeare Literacy. Before the end of the semester, I plan on reading one play from each genre. So far, I've decided on A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, and The Tempest. Since I don't know the histories very well, I'm hoping to get suggestions on which to read. These are only a sampling, but I hope to read more. Besides the plays, I'd like to have a general knowledge of the sonnets, and hopefully be able to find a few not-so-famous ones that I enjoy. Besides reading, I'd love to watch an adaptation, screen or stage, of each play to be able to get a feel for the performance aspect of the plays.
Analyze Shakespeare Critically. Since we won't have much formal writing in terms of papers we turn in, my analysis of Shakespeare will come mostly through this blog, where I will post textual, contextual, and theoretical explorations about what I've been reading. I will also strive to include some analysis of performance and other digital mediations to give you all a break from formal writing every so often.
Engage Shakespeare Creatively. And this is where the fun part comes in. Besides academic analysis, I also get to learn about Shakespeare through creative performance, imitation or artistic representation. Some ideas I have on my mind are: translate some scenes from a play to modern English, imitate Shakespeare's sonnet form and write my own, create a video presentation using images and words from play and sonnets, and get involved in a production or performance. I'm sure these will develop and multiply as time goes on.
Share Shakespeare Meaningfully. And after I've done all that, I will find ways to share what I've learned with both my classmates and others that I will hopefully come into contact with throughout this semester. This will mostly be in the form of posts and comments, but I also want to submit some kind of work to Showcase Shakespeare (featured below) which I think would really give me a chance to show what I've learned in a fun way.
Well, I think that's pretty much it. Please leave me some suggestions if you have any, particularly on which history to read since I believe that's the first genre we'll be reading. Thanks!
