Mapping my project

I was inspired after seeing Jessica's post outlining what she wanted to accomplish for the rest of the semester. She used the learning outcomes to decide what she needed more work on, and to decide on the goals she wanted to achieve. I'm going to do it a little simpler and just give myself a basic outline for how I want my research project to go. I'm hoping this will give me a little more structure as I continue posting, so that I won't get lost in the sea of blogging.

I'm going to approach my research topic, Women in Shakespeare, from a few different angles. First, I'd like to concentrate on the historical background, including women as part of Shakespeare's audience and women's education in Elizabethan England. Next I will be researching Shakespeare's experiences with women in his life, such as his mother, wife, extended family, and Queen Elizabeth herself. I will hopefully finish up the semester by analyzing a variety of plays and characters with strong female roles to demonstrate that Shakespeare was influenced by all these different factors, and could be classified as a proto-feminist. Here is my tentative schedule for following this plan:

March 6-12: Women as audience

March 13-19: Women's education

March 20-26: Research on Shakespeare's female relationships

March 27-April 9: Analysis of Plays and Characters

April 9- End of class: Shakespeare as a proto-feminist

Besides these more formal approaches, I will also be including a few informal posts to help fulfill the other learning requirements. I plan to share different digital mediations of Shakespeare that I've come across, do my own creative imitation of the Bard's work, and do some close textual readings.

I know it's not incredibly specific, but I've learned its nice to have wiggle room when it comes to research blogging. Ideas tend to change and plans need adjustment, so I'm trying not to close any doors on myself.

One thing I'm hoping to get feedback on is advice about which female characters and plays to focus on for the second half of my research. There are so many plays I haven't read where I know there are wonderfully witty and even powerful women, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know! They don't even have to be major characters, just ones who show a break from the stereotypical obedient and dutiful woman. So far on my list I am considering Katharina, Titania (although I haven't read A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, so help on that would be great too), Lady Macbeth, King's Lear's daughters, and possibly Ariel and Miranda from The Tempest.

I'd appreciate any pointers, thanks!