Fanfiction follow-up

After posting my short story to Fanfiction, I wanted to share what my experience was. It's always a scary thing to share my writing, but Fanfiction's anonymity is something that really encouraged me. Besides Natashya's comment on my story (which I appreciated), I also received one review on my story on Fanfiction:

not dragon
2011-04-10 . chapter 1

very nice. Games to be played, not a shrew tamed. Thought provoking indeed.

Although the comment is really short, it was just nice to know that someone had read my work and taken the time to tell me their thoughts about it. It was a really fun way to creatively share what I'd been learning this semester with people outside the class. This, along with my Twitter experiment earlier in the semester, has helped reach outside of my comfort zone, something I've really appreciated about this class. If anyone has done a creative project, I definitely recommend sharing it in some way, whether it be writing, making a cake, or putting together a production.

Shakespeare literary imitation

So I took a shot at creatively engaging Shakespeare this weekend by writing a short story about Kate from The Tempest. I wanted at first to actually imitate Shakespeare's language, but that proved very difficult, so I ended up just writing part of the last scene from Kate's point of view. It turned out to be really fun to try and delve into the character's mind. It may not be the best writing, but I enjoyed getting to know this play better.

Here ya go! Constructive criticism is more than welcome!

Fanfiction: a new digital mediation for Shakespeare

I decided to take a break from my serious research for this post and share my experiences with Fanfiction to take a shot at analyzing digital mediations. For those of you unfamiliar with Fanfiction, it's a website where you can post your own writing that you based on other books, plays, movies, TV shows, or even comics. Generally, you post in sections, or chapters, and other readers can leave reviews with helpful criticism or encouragement. There are thousands of writers on this site, and so you can imagine exactly how many reviews and new stories are being posted every day. Just as an example, the Harry Potter section has over 500,000 stories. These range from short stories, poetry, and even epics that literally take years to write.

When in middle school and high school, I have to admit that I was pretty obsessed with Fanfiction. I would spend hours reading other's stories, and then eventually writing my own. This was a major part of why I wanted to be a English major and then go on to be an editor or writer. It was amazing to be able to write and get feedback, as well as help others improve their own writing.

I decided that although I usually spent most of my time in the Harry Potter or Ella Enchanted sections (dorky, I know, but I loved it), I wanted to see what Fanfiction could offer fans of Shakespeare. I followed the links from Plays to Shakespeare, where the Bard has a respectable following of 1,762 stories (this is in comparison to Les Mis, 121, and Oedipus the King, 4). Just glancing through the first page of stories, I saw some really interesting ideas for creatively imitating Shakespeare. For example, one author puts a pirate theme on a female version on Hamlet:

 Hamletta » by Jenna Cassie Herdz

Her father dead, her uncle takes the title of Pirate King aboard the ship the Denmark. But when she finds out how her father really died, revenge fills her heart and mind.

Although this writer probably isn't the next Shakespeare, it's clear that she is very familiar with the text of Hamlet, and has creatively changed the setting and plot to make it her own. Fanfiction is awesome!

This has really inspired me to try and fulfill one of my other learning outcomes, literary imitation. In the next couple weeks, I'm going to write a short story about one of Shakespeare's characters, possibly from a unique point of view, and then post it on Fanfiction and see what kind of response I get. I think this will be a really fun way to creatively engage Shakespeare while also sharing my work with people outside our class. I know that lots of people in this class are doing some sort of literary imitation, and I think this would be an extremely effective way to share besides on our blogs.

The Globe Theater: an 11-year-old's view

As a slight tangent from my current topic of Shakespeare's feminine audience, I wanted to share these photos from my trip to London in 2001. When I was younger, I was part of a violin group that traveled abroad and that year we went to England. As part of our stay in London, we toured Shakespeare's Globe Theater, which I remember as an 11-year-old as boring and a waste of time. Now, however, I wish that I'd been able to appreciate the unique experience that I had. We unfortunately weren't able to see a performance there, but the tour was still interesting and I have some great photos to show how Shakespeare's plays must have been seen from an Elizabethan audience.

I know some of our classmates have taken their own looks at the Globe (like Laura), but I thought it would be fun to share my own personal experience with the restored theater.

Entering the Globe's lower gallery (that's my mom in the black and white)

Little bit of a plagiarist, eh? Shakespeare and the history of King Lear

The main reason I decided to read King Lear (besides how obviously famous it is) is that in my Medieval British Literature class I actually read the source that Shakespeare drew from when writing this play. Geoffrey of Monmouth, as the Necessary Shakespeare remarks, was a "Welshman in close contact with Celtic legend." He wrote between 1100-1154, and included a history of Lear, or Leir, in his "A History of the Kings of Britain." (This source is cited in the Appendix under "Sources" found on page A-30, in case anyone's interested.) When I read this selection from Geoffrey's "History," I immediately thought that it would be a fascinating experiment to see how close Shakespeare remained to the original source, in characters, plot, and theme. Also, I will analyze the two texts in terms of when each was written, and try to decide what each culture demanded of its literature. Here is a short snippet of Geoffrey's history:

After this unhappy fate of Bladud, Leir, his son was advanced to the throne, and nobly governed his country sixty years. He built, upon the river Sore a city, called in the British tongue Kaerleir, in the Saxon, Leircestre. He was without male issue, but had three daughters, whose names were Gonorilla, Regau, and Cordeilla, of whom he was dotingly fond, but especially of the youngest, Cordeilla. When he began to grow old, he had thoughts of dividing his kingdom among them, and of bestowing them on such husbands as were fit to be advanced to the government with them. But to make trial who was worthy to have the best part of his kingdom, he went to each of them to ask which of them loved him most.

You can find Geoffrey's full text here (starting at section 11). You can see that some of the names have changed slightly, some only in spelling, but that the basic plot remains the same. As I read Shakespeare's version, I'll report if I'm able to find any glaring differences, and then ask why he would make those changes.

My experience with AskShakespeare

Like we tried out in class, I posed my own question to the experts over at AskShakeapeare, and these are my results. Here are some of the people who responded:

Almasi Zsolt – @zsalmasi – reader at Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Hungary, interested in Tudor literature, and histories

Actors Shakespeare Company – @ActorsShakes – artistic director, Colette Rice of the theatre in residence at New Jersey City University

Shakespeare’s School – @ShakespearesSch – for all things related to Shakespeare’s School days

It was fun being able to chat with people I knew were knowledgeable about Shakespeare, and got some interesting responses and some great links, so check them out!

My Question:

JoannaLance: I know Shakespeare used a lot of English History in his plays. Did he also use elements of his personal life? #askshakespeare

My Answers:

BarbotRobot: @JoannaLance #askshakespeare His son, who died very young, was named Hamnet

zsalmasi: @JoannaLance Surely, but it is rather difficult to tell with precision. I reckon references to the theater are the ones. #askshakespeare

ActorsShakes: @JoannaLance #AskShakespeare That is a huge and loaded question. We just don't know. We can conjecture, but we are only guessing.

• JoannaLance: @ActorsShakes What do we know? Any specific facts, like characters he may have based on someone he knew? #askshakespeare

•  ActorsShakes: @JoannaLance #AskShakespeare we can't say 'fact.' William Page is a school boy studying Latin in Merry Wives - much like WS must have done.

• JoannaLance: @ActorsShakes So we can probably assume that the kind of school he had was reflected in his character William Page? #askshakespeare

•  ActorsShakes: @JoannaLance #AskShakespeare From the scene with William & Hugh Evans (Schoolmaster) it seems this was part of a typical boy's education.

• ActorsShakes: @JoannaLance #AskShakespeare There are the stories that John Falstaff was originally John Oldcastle, named for a historical figure.

• ActorsShakes: @JoannaLance #AskShakespeare WS had twins, one of whom died as a child - Viola and Sebastian are twins who each think the other dead.

ShakespearesSch: #AskShakespeare @JoannaLance . . & some believe 'Seven ages of Man' speech inspired by these buildings http://bit.ly/bu_guild (expand)

• JoannaLance: @ShakespearesSch That's really interesting! Thanks for the info #askshakespeare

• ShakespearesSch: #AskShakespeare @JoannaLance @ActorsShakes Sir Huw Evans/my successor Sir Thomas Jenkins http://bit.ly/flickr_PD01 (expand)

• ShakespearesSch: #AskShakespeare @JoannaLance . . . & local inspiration for "Tempest" http://bit.ly/SBT_FS127 (expand) 

• ShakespearesSch: #AskShakespeare @JoannaLance from his schooldays http://bit.ly/flickr_PD01 (expand) 

• ShakespearesSch @JoannaLance @ActorsShakes detailed & scholarly comment from Prof David Crystal http://bit.ly/DC_pwl (pdf file)

• ActorsShakes @ShakespearesSch @JoannaLance #AskShakespeare That's great. It said everything I researched when I directed MWives but can't fit in a Tweet.

• Joanna Lance: @ActorsShakes @ShakespearesSch Thanks to you both! I got some great stuff out of this :) #askshakespeare

I also enjoyed other questions and answers:

todayilike: #askshakespeare my Mum asks Shakespeare, What do you do in your spare time?

ActorsShakes: @todayilike #AskShakespeare - Spare time? I write plays, copy parts, rehearse, learn parts, fights, dances, perform, ride to Stratford...

zsalmasi: @todayilike I like to imagine that Sh did much reading in his spare time, and falconry, perhaps. #askshakespeare

ActorsShakes: @todayilike #AskShakespeare Truly he would have had little spare time. The played 6 days a week, almost always a different play.



There's still time to ask your question! Head on over to twitter or follow the instructions here!

Ask Shakespeare

Previously, I've posted about BloggingShakespeare, a really interesting blog that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. Their slogan is "Embracing Shakespearean Conversation in a Digital Age." Sound a bit like our class? Well, I was poking around their website, hoping to find some amazing article about The Taming of the Shrew to share with you all, when I came across something even better.

Right on their main page is a tab labeled AskShakespeare, an event, which luckily enough, is taking place TOMORROW. AskShakespeare is a one day event where a panel of Shakespeare enthusiasts and experts will answer any questions posted on Twitter. There are more detailed instructions here, but basically you Tweet your question with #askshakespeare included somewhere in your text, and someone from the panel will answer your question! It's really easy to get an account if you don't have one, and I think this a great way to do what Dr. Burton was talking about in class on Monday, communicating with other Shakespeare scholars, not just our class. It's really easy and seems like a way to get quick results and answers to our questions. If anyone has any questions, let me know in a comment and I'll try to respond here or maybe in class tomorrow. I'm definitely going to try this, and I'll let you know what the results are in my next post.

A little bit of history

To me, reading Henry V is quite a daunting task. I've never read any of Shakespeare's histories before and really don't know what to expect. British history is a confusing mass of war, revolutions, and political coups where it seems like every five years the people end up with a new king. So, as a guide for reading through this play, I wanted to have a substantial idea of what was going on during the time it is set.  I found this timeline, which really helped me solidify when and where everything was happening (not to mention who happened to be king at the time.) 

Also, David had a great summary and family tree posted over on his blog, with lost of helpful tips on how to remember who is who. Check it out if you want the wonderfully confusing history of England to be just a little bit clearer.

One last note on Hamlet

Although our class is moving on to Shakespeare's histories this week, I couldn't resist posting once more about Hamlet. What can I say? It's a great play. 

This semester, I am also taking British Medieval Literature (really interesting class, by the way), and it has truly surprised me how many similarities there are between many of my other readings and Hamlet. We've discussed in class how Shakespeare could be considered somewhat of a plagiarist, that much of what Shakespeare wrote was borrowed from early British historians and writers. Well, in Medieval Brit. Lit. there are just tons of examples of this. I picked out just one to share with you. 

We have been reading what's called "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles," a history that summarizes the most important events of each year, written between the 9th and 11th centuries. In one entry, discussing the death of William the Conquerer, it states:

"He that was before a rich king, and lord of many lands, then had no more land than a space of seven feet! and he that was once enshrouded in gold and gems lay there covered with dirt!"

To me, this bears a striking resemblance to Hamlet's remarks in the Graveyard scene:

"This fellow might be in ’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box, and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha!" (5:1)

Both of these passages relate to the idea of death as the great equalizer, and using remarkably similar examples. Although Hamlet is describing a great landowner instead of a king, both authors express the idea that although someone in life may have had great riches or land, he eventually only end up with "a space of seven feet."

Besides that passage, there is also similar language used between the two texts: "churl" and 

"twelfth-night," as well as the name Osric (like the character at the end of Hamlet), although I could be stretching the coincidences with that one. 

I thought it was interesting to find such explicit examples of Shakespeare borrowing from other authors. I will be posting more on this subject when we get to reading tragedies, as Geoffrey of Monmouth's "A History of the Kings of Britain," (which I've also read in my other class), contains the account that Shakespeare later draws from to write King Lear, which I think will make for an interesting comparison. 

As of right now, my reading schedule for this week is:

01/24- Read historical background and summary for Henry V; read Act 1

01/26- Read Acts 2-3

01/28- Read Acts 4-5

I'm going to take this week by week, as I don't know what my exact plan is and I'd like to be flexible. I'll try to post before every class period, and will hopefully be able to work in some fun creative interpretations and analysis. 

Showcase Shakespeare

Shakespeare's work has been analyzed to death. There's no getting around that. So how do I approach him from a new perspective and gain new insights? Well, this blog is part of the answer. Hopefully by communicating with people in this new digital age, I can start thinking outside the box. The rest of the answer is by thinking outside of the classroom. As an English major, I'm used to finding sources solely from academic books, articles, and reviews. 

This blog, however (at the risk of sounding Disney-ish), has opened up a whole new world. For example Blogging Shakespeare is exactly the kind of thing that we should be looking for. It's what people are saying about Shakespeare right now. There's articles, links to other blogs, and even current events about the Shakespeare world. 

However, most importantly, there is a way for all your hard work to be seen by other people than you classmates! Since a lot of the focus of our class is creatively engaging Shakespeare, you might be interested in Showcase Shakespeare, where you can submit any kind of creative work about Shakespeare for BloggingShakespeare to showcase on their new website. Here's a video introducing the showcase:

And you can go here to submit a work.

Hopefully, (because we are so very inventive and artistic) we can represent BYU in this. I think it would be a great way to expand our horizons!