Learning Outcomes

1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
"Demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy"

• Breadth: I was looking back over our syllabus at all the plays we've read and I was surprised by how many there are, I had forgotten. I was nervous coming into this class because I'd read many Shakespeare plays and wasn't sure if this class would contribute more plays. I had already read Henry V, Hamlet, Merchant of Venice and many others when I came into the class. Reading The Tempest, Love's Labour's Lost, and Othello were all new. And I came to realize that even though I had read many of the plays before, revisiting them in different formats (audio, kindle, Globe Theater Production, BYU Production) broadened my knowledge even more. I didn't just learn more about the plays but ways to divulge in the plays that I hadn't used previously.
• Depth: For my research I looked more closely at King Lear and Othello, I studied them with an Indian perspective because those are two of the plays that are commonly taught/performed in an Indian setting. Othello looked a lot like a Bollywood tragedy, particularly after watching "Omkara." It certainly gave me new perspective on the play. Additionally, I realized that looking at King Lear through a Pagan lens made it less of a tragedy. One of my professors explained that Indians are okay with tragedies because "they believe everybody is going to get reincarnated anyway." With a Pagan perspective the reconciliation of Lear and Cordelia is less important and the ending is more acceptable because everybody got what they deserved. I had read King Lear years before and revisiting it after watching "Omkara" completely changed my perspective of it, I read it like a Bollywood movie. So the ways that I studied in-depth weren't traditional but they were beneficial. 
• Performance: For this learning outcome I attended BYU's Love's Labour's Lost production, their Merchant of Venice production, and I also watched parts of the Globe Theater's Love's Labour's Lost. I also watched "Omkara," an Indian adaptation of Othello, as I mentioned before. I most enjoyed the Globe's Love's Labour's Lost because it seemed like keeping it in the time frame it was written in helped eliminate adaptation issues ( I had a really hard time with "Moth" in BYU's production, though it was also very well done). I thought it was very interesting to watch experienced actors perform the play and their humor was contagious, I wanted to show the play to my whole family.
• Legacy: When I read "Legacy" I thought "well shoot I didn't do anything for that one," then I saw that it said "scholarship, popular culture, history." I did look a lot into Shakespeare scholarship, particularly Shakespeare in Asia. I checked out books, read articles, and explored the internet. I got a bit consumed in seeing where I could find Shakespeare on the internet...Pinterest, Facebook, Etsy, Stumbleupon, Flickr, and Blogger were just a few of the places. The one thing I didn't look into much is Shakespeare's history, I mean, I know contexts behind the plays and I know a general history of Shakespeare but I don't know every detail of his life and his works. I feel like I learned a great deal about Shakespeare by learning about the authors and politics that surrounded him.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
"Interpret Shakespeare’s works critically in their written form, in performance (stage or screen) and in digitally mediated transformations."

• Textual Analysis: This was probably one of my weaker areas throughout the semester. I looked at passages from Othello, King Lear, Love's Labour's Lost and the Sonnets. Something that I found interesting is that Shakespeare has mastered the images of humanity and nature. Harold Bloom says "Shakespeare Invented the Human," essentially and a passage that I read from Dryden said the same thing. Everybody at Shakespeare's time called him the poet of nature and as I took this into account I realized that his texts are centered on universal aspects of human nature and that he often compares human events to nature. The themes he discusses and the language he uses all allude to some sort of natural happening, that was something I was continuously interested in over the semester. 
• Contextual Analysis: Like I said in the "legacy" section, I studied this a lot more than I realized. I looked a lot at secondary scholarships and a bit at Shakespearean history. I was really interested in Shakespeare in the cultural aspect and how we study his works globally. It was fascinating to see that we aren't the only ones interested in Shakespeare's works and how they affect society and what they say about humanity. I was also really interested in the cultural aspect in seeing how we discuss Shakespeare in class and online and how his works just resonate with people.
• Application of Literary Theories:  One of Gerald Graff's theories is that discussing literature is what makes reading literature worthwhile. I explored this idea in connection with Shakespeare and discovered that the capacity to discuss Shakespeare is what makes his works universal. Maybe everybody doesn't read them in the same way but everybody reads them and everybody discusses them, and that unites us.
• Analysis of Digital Mediations: I focused a lot on adaptations and how particular adaptations reflect a culture's understanding of Shakespearean concepts. Omkara was probably the most interesting because it wasn't necessarily a strictly accurate adaptation but it did provide some interesting insight into Indian culture. As a group we focused on how digital mediations of Shakespeare's works can be brought into the classroom to enable easier teaching/learning.

3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively

•  Performance: This isn't something I necessarily focused on a ton but I did go back to a few sonnets I had once known and re-memorized them, particularly sonnet 116 and sonnet 147. I also "performed" in my vlogs in which I discussed Shakespearean works and prepared trailer videos for our final work.
  Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)
  Collaborative creative project
• Individual Creative Work: Well, I'm no artist but I had a good time creating "character cards" that helped me connect all of the characters in the plays. I did this for several of the plays but only posted examples for one (like I said, I'm no artist). Doing this really helped me as I approached the play because I already knew how the characters related to each other. I also made little posters to sort of advertise for our final project, they featured a classroom full of students focused on their laptops or playing games and the caption said "does your classroom look like this? we can help."
• Collaborative Creative Project: For the past few weeks Tara, Alicia, and I have been working on a Prezi presentation about why digital media should be brought into the classroom in order to better help students understand Shakespeare. We've made several videos and tried to incorporate the work of other students in our class so we can demonstrate the successes our class has had with looking at Shakespeare in a non-traditional way. We've highlighted examples like social proof, how to incorporate technology and why it is important. Overall I think it has been a great learning experience for all of us.

4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully

• Formal Writing: The research paper that I worked on throughout the semester is probably the best example of Formal Writing that I did for this class. It was great to get real feedback on it. We put our ideas into circulation but linking our blogs to a google doc of the paper. I really appreciated the peer reviews we did because it made me feel like my paper mattered. 
• Informal Writing: This concept was accomplished through lots of blogging and social media interactions. The tweethis statement was just one example of informal writing. While some of my blog posts were a bit more formal many of them spoke casually about Shakespeare in a tone that makes them more accessible and understandable. I'm sure there were a couple of posts that I missed but overall I tried my best to get in all the posts and to make meaningful comments on other people's posts. 
• Connecting: I got in touch with people as far away as India and interacted with them about Shakespeare's works. This class helped me to open up to professors of other classes and discuss my ideas with them and get some validation from them. I also connected closely with Alicia and Tara as we met several times outside of class, g-chatted lots, and really discussed our project on a deep level. 

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."

• Consume: I felt like I did a pretty good job with the consumption thing. I felt like I took in so much information from so many different sources that it was difficult to decide on a research topic - everything was interesting. I looked at tons of different social media websites and also did a lot of scholarly research. I watched clips, adaptations, read articles, stalked professors, etc. It was also really helpful to connect via blogger with other students in the class.
• Create: This class is probably the first that has stretched me to create something in conjunction with what I'm reading and studying (something that isn't a traditional paper). I feel like the biggest thing we "created" was our final project because it involves videos, links, references to students and professors and is pretty much a collaborative project of everything we've covered this semester.
• Connect: This was the learning outcome that I thought was the most exciting/engaging. I loved participating with other professors from other schools because they treated me as equals in a lot of ways because they weren't entirely sure who they were interacting with. I really like connecting with others in our classroom, not just Alicia and Tara but those that I connected with via blogging or in class discussion, even when our projects didn't coincide. This is what made Shakespeare meaningful for me.

End of Semester Things

So far everything has been wrapping up nicely with this class. I was going over the syllabus to see how we've done with our learning outcomes and I forgot how many plays we've read over the semester, that was definitely fun to look back. Just some final thoughts to wrap up the semester....

Our "final trailer" ended up being an animated video about bringing technology into the classroom I thought it actually turned out pretty well and it is featured on the first shot of our Prezi. It was fun to film and I thought it worked out well to have a collaborative final trailer as it really captured what we were doing with our re-purposed content.

As I've been looking over the market study stuff I feel like the best measures of success are the videos and blogs I posted in our market study. Before I joined the class I was already a regular blogger and I'm always surprised to see just how much people interact with blogs and "follow" each other. The blogging community is huge. There's an interesting phenomenon, it is sort of like being a celebrity in sense, where once you build up following you somehow earn the right to say whatever you'd like about anything you'd like. Bloggers that build up an audience and then state their opinions about education, Shakespeare, teaching, etc. are more likely to be accepted because they already have that basic following. You could tell the videos were successful just based on the fact that they were part of a website that has hundreds of thousands of likes on Facebook and a website that can actually give the videos the views they're looking for. The makers of those videos are getting their ideas out in the world. That is what makes them successful.

Finally, as I've worked in this class I've come to a better definition of what I think a well-rounded education is. It's not just about choosing between digital media and the pages of a book, it's about finding the balance in education. It's about knowing when to use the internet and when to curl up with a book and be engulfed by every word. A well-rounded education means having the open-mind to learn about every type of teaching method and the discernment to know which is best for you personally. One of my professors was talking about how we can choose our own education and its true. We can tailor our schedules, our classes to our passions and strengths or potential strengths. Our education is in our hands and whether it is a professor pushing us or us pushing ourselves, we have the power to decide on making the most of our education. I think that, above anything else, is the most important thing I have learned in this class this semester.

Annotated Bibliography of Comparable Work

 1.E How "Discover the Expert in You"
This website is comprised of thousands of videos and articles meant to teach people how to do things they don't know how to do. On this site there are several videos that are comparable to the work we've done with titles like "How to Teach Shakespeare to College Students," "How to Teach Shakespeare to High School Students," "How to Organize your classroom," and more. This might be once place where we could submit our videos once they are re-purposed and polished. There already seems to be a good following on the site and what they are doing seems to be successful and viewed often. The videos also have transcriptions below them so you can follow along with ease.

2. E Notes "Study Smarter"

This website is similar to the E How website but is composed mostly of written material. One article in particular is a very simple 7-Step process for first time Shakespeare teachers. It encourages teachers to rent films, read modern translations, and more. It is similar to our work in that it focuses on different Shakespeare mediums and gives the suggestions as simply as possible.

3. A Teacher Writes "How to teach Shakespeare to high school students: A few basics from one who does it"

This site is a teacher's blog that gives 7 "Rules" for teaching Shakespeare. It is similar to what we want to do in giving the "why" and "how" of Shakespearean studies. The author encourages reading aloud, paraphrasing, being passionate, etc. 

more to come..

90 Minute video...repurposed, and with text. which I had to write backwards.

Love's Labor's Lost Performance Analysis, Revisited

BYU's 1940's version of Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost was intriguing on many levels. The play pointed to the similar social ideals between the original setting of the play and the adapted setting of the play, mostly on the level of how relationships and wit function in both. By placing the production in a 1940's setting the director made the play more accessible to a modern audience. Although the 1940's isn't quite like our 2012 society, it is much easier to relate to than Shakespeare's 1500-1600 setting.

With the Shakespearean language still in tact, the characters changed accents, speech patterns, and upped the body language to help the audience get the gist of what was being said. Because the original language wasn't changed the wit translated across in a way that no translation could. The original script became even more understandable when spoken colloquially as the characters often did. The Shakespearean  wit also served as a commentary on relationships throughout the play and helped the audience to understand that the relationships weren't necessarily based on anything of great depth but on flirtatious exchanges. If I could use just one phrase to describe the characters in the play it would be "fools in love." Nothing gets too serious or heavy until the end. The supposedly deep love sonnets are written and expressed whimsically and the exchanges between the men and women consist only of good-hearted banter. When the play ends and the "lovers" depart, it isn't a tragedy because it is not a once in a life time kind of love....yet. If the men survive the year without their lovers it just may become that but who's really to say.

The staging of the play was simple but effective, portraying a WWII club/bar/radio show effectively and humorously. Chelsey Roberts did a fantastic job with the costumes and they truly captured the essence of the WWII era quite well.  The hair styles fit well with the costumes and both helped to get the audience into the right mindset (the suspension of disbelief mindset as Keats would say). They actors/actresses were well caste and each fit their part well. Rosaline was a particular favorite of mine. The minors characters of the play, while not given many speaking parts, were great performers and added greatly to the sort of party-like feel of the play.

While overall, the director did a great job of capturing the essence of the Shakespearean comedy, several of the smaller details were lacking. These details didn't take away from the overall quality of the show but were things that could be improved on for great audience enjoyment. I feel like they would have been helpful to anticipate before seeing the play.  First, the play went a little bit longer than many anticipated which wouldn't be a problem if the length was known ahead of time, but becomes a problem when audience members have different expectations. I felt that some of the banter could have been removed and some minor scenes were interesting but unnecessary. The program explained several concepts apparent in the play but I felt it should have discussed the decision to change Moth to a female character so that it was clearer in the play and so the audience didn't expect a romantic ending for her.  Many in the audience also seemed to be surprised by the abrupt ending and separation of others, which I felt they should have prepared us for.

While the play had some flaws, none of them were tragic and the play was generally well-received and enjoyed by audience members. The interactive nature of the play (talking to members of the audience, inviting audience members to come on stage during intermission, etc.) made it very unique and memorable. This play, like many of BYU's, certainly did not disappoint and is sure to leave adults, students, and children pleasantly surprised.

Market Study Continued

Alright so here is a list of several of the teacher's I've emailed to help us get a grasp on what problems we need to address. I decided that if I don't hear back from them I'm just going to go to their offices at Timpview and asking them.

1.  David Sutherland - Honors English
M.A. St. John’s College 2009       B.A. BYU-English Teaching 1993
18 years at Timpview
"Teaching keeps me reading and learning and that keeps me excited about teaching. My favorite and frequent experience as a teacher is engaging in student-centered, in-depth, focused, text-based discussions about meaningful ideas encountered in great literature. "

Mr. Sutherland is really into traditional teaching methods - as you can probably tell from his "About Me." I'm hoping that we can get his feedback on classroom problems and help to remedy those problems through less traditional methods.

2.  Jeana Rock - English, Media Literacy
B.A English M.A. Theatre and Media Arts
Spanish Fork High School 1993-95     Timpview 1995- present
 "I love to read, write, garden, knit, crochet and sew. I love teaching teenagers because they help me stay young and always learning"

Mrs. Rock is way into media and way into using it in the classroom but not all of her students were ready for it because her lack of introduction. We had to blog in her classroom and many students were uncomfortable with that but I think with some help she'd be able to better ease them into it. I'd like to interview her about her experiences with media and about any resistance she's encountered. She's said that she'd be willing to help us in our project.

3. Alison Van Orden - AP Language and Composition, Journalism
M.Ed University of Phoenix – Education Counseling      B.A.  Brigham Young University–English Teaching
16 Years at Timpview High School AP English Language Instructor Thunderbolt Advisor(Timpview’s student newspaper) English Department Chair Member of Timpview’s Community Council
"I Love My Students!"

I didn't have Mrs. Van Orden in high school but she's one of the most well-respected English teachers. Her husband teachers German at the school as well. We could even interview him and ask about his thoughts on what we're doing. Or interview them together.

As for where we're looking to channel our work...

Our main focus is on UCTE as of right now because we feel it could be a really positive outlet for our work and something really appropriate and do-able. We could very feasibly present our ideas.

I also really like the idea of Classroom 2.0 because it seems like something where we could just channel a written version of work without having to tailor it too specifically to one audience because it seems like what they're doing is pretty broad. Which is very appealing.

We could also present at the UEA conference (Utah Education Association) in October as they have workshops on teaching methods, etc. I feel like their information is a bit more ambiguous, however, so I feel more comfortable working with the UCTE idea perhaps in conjunction with Classroom 2.0

As far as the whole teaser, trailer, content thing goes I think our teaser will be our miniature videos we've recorded. Our trailer will be a more polished video concerning student's wants/ needs in a teacher and the content will be our actual written document. or maybe a more mixed media approach as Alicia discussed.

Also I thought maybe for our teaser content we could do something like this..(obviously super rough)...and direct them to our blogs/link or something

Love's Labor's Lost Performance Analysis

Alright here's what I thought about everything.

I really really really liked the staging of things. I liked how they made the characters part of the audience at times and the audience a part of the play (especially when they pulled the guy from the front row to take the character's pictures and during intermission when they invited the audience up on stage). I thought it functioned well to help the audience feel engaged in what was going on. I like how characters would speak in the direction of the audience when discussing their emotions. I liked how some of the men/women would flirt with audience members via winks, waves, etc. during the play. I also really liked how they had so many entrance and exit points it kept it interesting. Probably one of my favorite staging moments was when the men were overhearing each others love letters, that was pretty great, and Biron's face was priceless.

As far as setting goes, I was really into the WWII setting and I loved the props on the stage. I thought the very beginning was brilliant when we could catch a glimpse into the dance hall through the opening and closing doors at the AFO canteen. I thought the set up of the bar/club/radio station was very well done and I thought the dressing room scenes added a lot.

Costuming. I actually know the costume designer - Chelsey Roberts - and I thought she did an excellent job.  I wished the dresses and hair styles of Jacquenetta, the Princess, and Rosaline would help separate them from the other women. The men's uniforms were well done, and I like how Costard's set him apart from the other men.

I definitely agree with Alicia that one of my favorite parts was the live band, it wouldn't have been the same. I was super impressed with how the band would get quieter when the AFO screen would come down, knowing it wasn't the screen that was making them quieter.

Casting. Costard was one of my favorites but probably just because what he was saying was funny and how he said it was even better.  I had a love hate relationship with Biron because I liked him a lot in some scenes but not as much in others. I thought Rosaline did a great job as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed the play though it did get a bit long towards the end. I think perhaps just because I knew what was coming and wanted to get it over with (does any body really like the ending?) And I know Dr. B addressed this in class so I did take what he said into account but I feel like the ending was less of a party and more of a tragedy than I expected...we'll just say I wanted to cry (but I didn't).

Part of the Market Study

Below is a copy of the email that I sent to all the English teachers from my high school. I know it may seem odd that I didn't branch out to other schools (yet) but my reasoning is that since I went to high school in Provo, like right up the street from BYU, it would be fairly easy to interview some teachers for our video and that way we can get not only ideas from students but we can understand the problems that many teachers are facing. I'm hoping that by having teachers in our video it will be more relate-able to our audience, not just a bunch of students making demands and whining about what's wrong with their classes (it wouldn't be that anyways). So here's the email, I'm hoping at least some of them still love me enough to write back.

Dear English Teachers of Timpview,

My name is Mallory Stevens (previously Peterson) and I'm an English Major at BYU. Many of you I had as teachers while I was at Timpview, and many of you I didn't.  Right now I'm working on a collaborative project in my Shakespeare class and we're trying to get together a sort of how-to guide for teachers who are looking to incorporate technology into their classrooms. Sort of the basis we're working on is that if teachers don't bring technology into the classroom, their students will. I'm not talking about having your students bring laptops to class but about encouraging teachers to play on their student's technological strengths to help them study difficult material like Shakespeare. In my own Shakespeare class my professor has encouraged us to use blogs, social media, and online articles to help us understand difficult materials. The benefit of this is that students can't slip by without doing their reading, they can't just depend on spark notes because what they're being asked to do requires actually reading and following up on that reading. I have a lot I could say about this but that is the basic idea. What I'm wondering is if any of you could just help me pinpoint some of the problems you have in your class room (whether they're technology-based or not) so we can know what teacher's concerns are as we continue to work through this project. The problems can be anything from students texting in class to them not doing their reading/homework, just anything that comes to mind. I'm anxious to hear back from you, I know you're all great teachers and I really value your opinions.

Best Wishes,

Mallory Stevens

Collaborative Work

Okay, so we've been trying to brainstorm some ideas and I thought it might be helpful to make our Google Doc viewable to the class so we can get some feedback... also, I've been thinking about the Market Study and I'm contacting some Teachers from my high school to see if what we're trying to do would be useful to them. I think it would also be helpful to interview them and ask what issues in their classroom need to be addressed.

here's the link...https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7bmlyLjLujp_bNtN6zyoXJlmMB5MJPn8ju34cPpIik/edit

My Reserach in 90 Seconds, less actually.

Prototype(s)

Okay, so I haven't put the how-to-teach-with-technology business together yet but that is one idea for a new medium for my paper to be put into. We're wanting to work on a step by step guide to teaching in a new age and with a new sort of student (aka the kind of student that is knows how to use a computer). I think it will be important to explain that we know not all students want to do their reading on a kindle and swap in their printed pages for web pages BUT there are ways to incorporate technology without digitally drenching every part of the class. I think the how-to guide should point this out.

Part two consists of putting together a video of students explaining what they want in a teacher slash a little segment of what students resort to when they don't have the sort of teacher they're looking for. For example, this would be the type of things people may say. (Also, these aren't all necessarily true of myself but are things that I've heard actual students say)

I bring my laptop to school so that I can play solitaire when class gets boring.
I check my Facebook in class.
I want a teacher that will start a class discussion and actually listen to what I'm saying.
I get A's without doing the reading.
There is nothing worse than realizing your professor is the type of teacher who just stands at the front of the class and talks for an hour.
I want a teacher who realizes that reading a book isn't just about understanding the text but being up to date with the conversation.
I want a teacher who will help me do more with my education.

These are just some examples and I'd love to hear about others that you may have. I haven't made a prototype video yet because I'm wondering what format you think would be most effective? How should this be done? I'd really love feedback on this :)

Also...research paper in 90 seconds should be in just a little while, keep an eye out for it.

Peer Papers

Okay, so I did comment on Alicia and Tara's posts but I did so with the anticipation that we would be discussing more in class, not sure why I thought that. Anyhow.

In Reading Tara's paper I was really interested in what she said about the importance of breaking Shakespeare into bits - maybe not reading his whole plays but breaking them down into smaller units. I think this is a great approach to teaching because it engages students more proficiently and makes the information more digestible for the average reader. In discussing this idea with Dr. Burton he brought up an idea of John Donne's. He explained that when gold is in brick form it only has potential value but when it is broken up into coins it becomes of great worth because it is exchangeable, a form of currency. I think the same idea applies to Shakespeare's works. Trying to read his complete works is like trying to read the dictionary but when you break it into sonnets, sections of plays, and even the critical work of Shakespeare it becomes digestible. The idea of universality that I discussed in my paper plays into this because it is that global access to Shakespearean commentary that will help teachers make their lessons "bite-size" this is a perfect bridge into Alicia's paper because...

In order to get those bite-size pieces teachers must be willing to incorporate technology in their teaching approach. By sending their students to the internet before they send them to the text they place the students in a comfortable environment where they have control of their learning and can pursue their own interests concerning the plays they choose to study. The vast expanse of Shakespearean commentary online, I think, will prove crucial to successful studies. I commented on Alicia's post that if teachers don't bring technology into the classroom, students will, and we all know it. I read a rate my professor review of a teacher that said "great guy, really smart, but come to class prepared with a laptop to browse the internet or play solitaire." The dynamics of university class rooms are changing whether it is the teachers or the students that initiate it.  The benefit of the teachers initiating it is that they maintain control of their class rooms. Given all this information though I can't help but feel obligated to do something with it. I don't know if we're allowed to do our own sub-projects beneath our big final project but if we are..here are a couple suggestions.

The first thing I thought of doing is creating a YouTube video with clips of students (selected randomly throughout BYU campus or from our own classroom) explaining what they expect from their professors (in class discussions, fairness, exciting classes, etc), and just sort of explaining how they want to be taught and engaged in class. I feel like we're at a point where all the professors are telling each other how to teach but what if, as students, we told them exactly what we want/need from them? Dr. B...from your standpoint, would it be helpful if your students told you what they wanted? I guess my thought process is that if professors could hear us saying that we want this sort of switch and that we learn best through this medium, that maybe they'd see more value in it. So that's thought one.

Thought two is to compile a how-to guide for teachers who are stuck in the margins and feel that traditional and technological teaching sit as polar opposites. We could help them ease into a new type of teaching and explain the benefits this teaching will have for their students. Many teachers (I think) resist this change because they would have to surrender some classroom control to make the change. Our guide would ideally address their anxieties and help them to move in a direction that will help their students.

Link to final final paper and some thoughts

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13nUCyQoI5mpcWXyq5AGvKT657RR4h140F4wFAc6XdGg/edit

Alright so as far as audience is concerned I'm wanting to perhaps address those teachers/professors that are hesitant to make the shift to utilizing digital media in the class room. I feel that traditional teaching methods and methods that involve digital media are seen as being polar opposites with no mediating middle ground. I think it is this large gap that prevents teachers from utilizing digital media. I also think that many professors/teachers feel their students are more proficient in their technological abilities so bringing digital mediums into the class room would force many instructors to surrender some control for the benefit of their students.

I want to reshape my ideas a bit to think about how to convince teachers of the importance of utilizing new mediums. By discussing a renewed idea of the universal Shakespeare as something that is globally discussed and easily accessible it almost becomes irresponsible of teachers to shun these new methods. Trying to chip away at the Complete Works of Shakespeare is like trying to read the dictionary - it is too dense for modern audiences. By thinking of Shakespeare's work like a brick of gold (the analogy is credit to John Donne in many ways) we see that in the brick form it has potential value but by breaking it into coins it becomes an exchangeable currency, Shakespeare's work functions the same way, as a currency. In that it is current and exchangeable and that it is useful. Even when the currency is exchanged (aka translated) the root still exists and the exchanged currency is tied to that root. Teachers who refuse to use this type of currency (which largely consists of the more digest-able digital media of our day) are negligent in their teaching and are not pushing their student to their full potential. Utilizing digital media takes a strength that students of this generation seem to have inherently and allows them to work from that strength rather than being forced to fit a traditional, generic mold.

Something that I think would be useful is to run with this idea of a redefined universality and create a sort of program for teachers who want to utilize this medium but don't know how, it could help them ease into it and provide convincing evidence that it is what their students need, just a thought.

Link to first final paper

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eWXQuzjwcfbTbWRTQszmaUMil7T6AZM0UmgYKczA23Q/edit

Textual Analysis

 William Shakespeare, King Lear, 1.2.117

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star!

 This passage, spoken by Edmund, discusses man's tendency to blame his ill-fortune on fate. Shakespeare communicates this idea by using distant, natural elements like "the sun, the moon, and the stars," things that can only be observed from a distance but never controlled.  Phrases like "heavenly compulsion, spherical predominance and planetary influence" also allude to natural elements and the absence of human control as far as disposition and agency is concerned. When I was in India, something that was always interesting to me was how the people I interviewed, when a sensitive subject was brought up, would run their finger across their head and say "tala rata" meaning "it is written." There is a Hindu ideal that says that a man's fate is written on the inside of his forehead where it cannot be seen by that man. It is not seen, but it is there. When they believed something was just out of their control they sometimes would not even say the words but just run their fingers across their forehead. They would do it if they didn't have enough money, if they didn't couldn't send their children to school, if they didn't have food. It was their way of coping with reality and this excerpt by Shakespeare embodies the human tendency to remove the responsibility from ourselves by assuming we never had a choice to begin with. The woman would say "if it is his fate to go to school he will go, if not, he will not go," and they never felt they had a choice in the matter. They often sat on the sidelines of their own lives, afraid to interfere with fate. I can't help but wonder what Shakespeare is trying to do by having these lines spoken by Edmund. If he's trying to voice his opinion through Edmund that's certainly odd because he's an odd character to identify with. I don't believe he's trying to mock what is being said by virtue of who is speaking it but perhaps Shakespeare is saying something about Edmund - something oddly positive - by having him speak these words.


Othello


I am glad I have found this napkin.
This was her first remembrance from the Moor,
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Wooed me to steal it, but she so loves the token—
For he conjured her she should ever keep it—
That she reserves it evermore about her
To kiss and talk to. I’ll ha’ the work ta’en out,
And give’t Iago. What he will do with it,
Heaven knows, not I.
I nothing, but to please his fantasy. (III.iii.294–303)

The first thing that stuck out to me from this passage was that Emilia referred to her husband as "wayward" and then said "I nothing, but to please his fantasy." This passage shows how unstable Emilia and Iago's relationship truly is, and clearly not one with open communication. All she desires is to please him so rather than asking what he will do with it, she gets Iago the handkerchief to appease him for a day and to stay in good standing with him. In "Omkara" Emilia is portrayed as very desperate and alone. She is trying to be playful with Iago, teasing him with the belt and he, rather than thanking her, is unamused by her flirtatious attempts and gets angry with her. Emilia, because of her husband, seems to have a bitter view of love. In the time that she spends with Desdemona I can't help but feel that her combined bitterness with Othello's hostility lessens Desdemona's innocence, making her seem jaded. This passage was also interesting because of the idea of Indian women being submissive to their husband and carrying out their will whenever asked. There are hundreds of stories about women who enter into arranged marriages and are abused physically and emotionally. Emilia's attitude reflects many of theirs, "I nothing, but to please his fantasy." It makes me wonder if part of the reason this play was popular in India is because of the themes of female subordination and victimization. It is a relate-able play, no doubt, to those in the India audience.

Tweethis Statement

Alright...here's what I posted on my Facebook last week..

Hi friends! Need a little bit of feedback for one of my classes..my super simplified thesis is that Shakespeare's works are best understood by engaging them in intellectual discussion rather than reading them in isolation. Thoughts? If you wanna know a bit more about this whole "bring your school work to facebook thing" click on the link. Thanks :)  (I linked to the tweethis post on Shakespeare Unbound)

I was surprised to find that getting responses took some digging. One Facebook friend responding by saying

"I completely agree with your thesis! Shakespeare's works dig below the surface and are hard to understand due to that fact and the difference in the way we speak from then to today. By talking to other people you are able to see different perspective and greater your personal understanding. Intellectual discussion would never be destructive to one's understanding, rather it would heighten it."

This was really encouraging to me, I'll admit, it's nice to be agreed with, to get some feedback from fellow college students. My post on Twitter (due to the fact that I don't regular Twitter) didn't produce anything of substance. 

Because I didn't get as many posts as I expected, I reached out to friends via Facebook message and tried to get feedback that way.  It was interesting because I felt more invested in what I was doing. Rather than just posting a status I was sending individual messages and asking for feedback. This, I haven't seen the reciprocity of quite yet but a friend told me she was having trouble accessing my facebook, "why can't I click on your name, are you a ghost?" Not sure what's going on with that but as a final ditch effort to get some feedback I took my thesis to fellow English majors outside of our class. We were looking at Pope's "Rape of the Lock," trying to pick apart every detail and each of us trying to understand what Pope was saying. We were engaging in a conversation, each of us bringing our own respective biases to the reading. I realized that we were doing precisely the thing that I'm encouraging in my paper. The girls I discussed with helped me to understand the poem better in the twenty five minutes that we talked than I ever understood in my many readings of the poem, trying to dissect it on my own. The way that intellectual conversation works helps us to not only understand others ideals but to form our own, to formally take what was once a thought and attach it to words. I shared with them my thesis and they too recognized that what we were doing was case in point of the value of discussing literature. I may not have had a ton of feedback on social networks but everyone that did give me feed back was involved in what I was doing and that felt good. It gave me the confidence to keep writing.

Rough Draft/Tweethis

The tweethis that I've kind of shot out and am waiting for feedback on is that "Shakespeare is best understood and expanded by engaging and discussing his texts rather than reading in isolation." I'm incorporating ideas about social media and the capacity we have to make Shakespeare global not just in the sense that he is studied globally but in that we can interact globally. Shakespeare has become a common thread between societies and we are not capable of reaching halfway across the world to prove it.

So, without further ado, here's what I have so far. I've got a lot of ideas brewing, but tell me if this general train of thought is making sense. Happy Studying!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pUExWBkxlHgi9ok4tVLQiUTgbjm-Vno5cvwxpaNBxfQ/edit

Phase Two Progress Report

1. Performance Analysis see post here

2.Annotated Bibliography here

3.Digital Media and Online Resources....see links here, here, and here

4. Social Proof here and in phase one. I continue to wait for a few more responses but keep reaching out to professors and the authors of articles that interest me.

Annotated Bibliography

My research at this point has many possible routes. I could look into how Shakespeare is being performed/adapted/translated in India and how the plays that are chosen are reflective of society’s ideals/values. I could look into how reading certain plays through the lens of an alternative society can completely change the way the play was viewed and demonstrate that the Shakespeare is universal but his plays still have prejudiced readings. I could look into how plays with heavily victimized characters are popular in areas that feel they are victimized. I have several possible directions that I could take my research and these sources are what led me to these thoughts. These sources are a part of the preliminary work that has taken place.

Shakespeare, William. Exhibition of Shakespeariana: April 2-May 31, 1916, the New York Public Library.  New York: New York Public Library, 1916. Print.

I found this source by browsing the shelves on the fifth floor of the Harold B. Lee Library. I was drawn to it because of the “Shakespeariana” title, knowing that this was the name of a major performing company in India. While the book wasn’t about the performing company I discovered that it could be of use because of how it discussed a list of possible books that Shakespeare may have read to aid him in writing his great works. This is relevant to my research because I am studying the way Shakespeare is studied and I think it is important to acknowledge who/what his predecessors were in order to see what made him the genius he is.

Trettien, Whitney A. "Disciplining Digital Humanities, 2010: Shakespeare's Staging, XMAS, Shakespeare Performance in Asia, Shakespeare Quartos Archive, and BardBox." Shakespeare Quarterly 61.3 (2010): 391-400. Print.

This source discussed some of the methods of digitally archiving Shakespeare.  It in particular reviewed one of my sources (before the project was complete) among other useful sources such as Shakespeare Quartos and Bardbox. I was referred to this source by Kaleigh, who searched through our library’s database and utilized its resources to find it. This relates to my topic by nature of being connected to sources involving Shakespeare in India, it pointed me to other useful services as well as reviewed their effectiveness, helping me discern which sources to use.

Trivedi, Poonam, and Ryuta Minami. Re-playing Shakespeare in Asia. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.

This source is a monograph, focusing on how Shakespeare is adapted to Asian cultures. It contains perspectives from different professors and scholars, each explaining how the country/area that they are studying relates to and adapts Shakespeare. I found this source by looking through several Indian professor profiles and seeing their involvement in its making. I found it on amazon but the book ran upwards of 150 dollars so I requested it through the Universities InterLibrary Loan. This relates to my topic because it contains exclusive information about how Shakespeare is performed in India. 

Y. Huang, Alexander C. "Global Shakespeares." Global Shakespeares. MIT, 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. <http://globalshakespeares.org/>.

This source has been one of the most useful as it is a database of video and performance archives of Shakespeare worldwide. It is relevant to my project because of the videos and information it offers that encompasses Indian portrayal of Shakespeare. I was referred to this site by its co-creator Alex Huang after a Professor Parks of Stanford referred me to him. He responded to an email with a brief response to my questions about Indian performance and a promise that all my questions could be answered on his website.

Omkara/Performance Analysis

Alright, I watched "Omkara," a few days ago (a Bollywood Adaptation of Othello) and I've been gathering my thoughts on it ever since. Here's a quick rundown of my thoughts on it.

First, I thought it was very well done and it was a really interesting (and very long) movie.

Something you must understand about Bollywood movies is that there actors are heavily type-casted. They play the same sort of roll every time. I'm not an expert on Ajay Devgan (the Indian equivalent of Othello) but I looked at his awards list and there were many "best actor" and "best villain" nominations and a few "best comedian" nominations. Knowing that the movie is obviously not a comedy the "best comedian" suit doesn't fit. Which leads me to believe that he was being cast as a villain. Interesting. Why is Othello, not Iago being cast as the villain? I'm afraid I don't have an answer yet.

Okay, so he's Othello and deemed a villain based off of casting. Then there's Kareena Kapoor who is basically the Princess of Bollywood. She's pretty, she can dance, and she has fair skin. She is the beloved Desdemona...aka Dolly. This also says something about how they perceive Desdemona. Kareena is typically flirtatious and sassy, a stronger character. She's confident, and it shows in her acting.  She isn't portrayed as being weak in the movie due to her nature but because of her circumstances. It is her position that disables her from defending herself and getting the story straight, and it doesn't help that she doesn't actually know what's going on.

 

The last scene of the movie ends with Omakra and Dolly both dead. Dolly is swinging on a sort of rocking bed/bench and Omi is dead on the floor. The screen goes dark and cuts to the credits with the sound of the creaking bed in the background.

There were several Indian elements in the movie. The handkerchief was a belt (which in India is a piece of jewelry, my husband and I looked at a gold one and it ran upwards of 10,000 USD ). There were bad omens and arranged marriages. That's how the whole thing started, by Dolly going against her father's arrangement. And there were trains, palaces, and bright sarees. The conflict between Dolly and Omi didn't occur after their marriage but before all the ceremonies took place.

Why Othello? As I watched the movie I felt like without knowing the context it could have been any other Bollywood movie where everybody dies in the end, or there is a great tragedy, or it ends on a rough note and everyone walks away okay. When I was in India I felt they weren't as concerned with the ending as they were with the message. I remember one day going to see a movie with a group of Indians. It was a great movie until it reached the end. The two characters who were in love with each other the whole time (the best friend kind) simply couldn't depart from the ones they were dating in order to have true love. They ended up with the wrong person, but it ended as if that were a decent resolution to a happy ending. What? Me and my American friends hated it. We hated the movie because of the ending. Our Indian friends love it. "Oh it is better that she should be with him, it is more sensible, more reasonable, people would ask questions if the two best friends got married." They were not concerned with the ending, the were pleased that they had been friends and were now married to other people. Because that was sensible. I saw another Bollywood movie where there were two girls and one married the others love, leaving the lonely girl to think her lover was dead (long story) and that was a fine ending. Indians don't need happy endings. The themes of revenge, loyalty, family, and marital happiness contained in Othello are what I believe drew the Indians to the play or the play to them. Everybody is betraying each other right and left and that is normal for them, that is normal for them to see in their media. This just furthered my idea that society studies the Shakespeare that reinforces what they already know, and that no matter the context, we seek to organize great literature into our lives in some satisfactory way.

Okay, now for the technical stuff.

Costuming: I loved the costumes because they were so true to the culture in which the film was presented. They mostly stuck to traditional Indian attire - Sarees, Chudidars, etc. and I loved the belt/handkerchief replacement and how it applied more to Indian culture. 
Casting: I talked about this already up above but I felt like Kareena Kapoor was a great choice as the beloved Desdemona because she is so well-liked among film-goers. I'm not sure why Ajay Devgan was caste as Othello because I don't see him as a villain per-say but more as a lost man. I thought he made a great Othello I'm just not sure why his type-cast fit the bill. Saif Ali Khan made a great/creepy Iago. He successfully fooled Othello by being a great friend on one hand and a traitor on the other, he was really believable.
Language: I must admit that reading the subtitles was an interesting experience. The material of Othello was translated into Hindi and I was reading the Hindi translation of its main ideas back to English, which helped me look at what they valued. It took a little bit away from the experience not hearing the Shakespearean language but it functioned to highlight the themes.

Update.

Okay, I know this is late, but it's intentional, (sounds crazy I know). I decided to wait for this post until I had some solid information rather than just run my mouth (or keyboard). Okay so, I did something new...I got a book from Interlibrary Loan. Huzzah! First. If you haven't tried this, do it. They are fairly quick in getting you the book and its just like things would be if you were to get a book from our own library, they handle everything behind the scenes. You just have to pick it up when it's there, return it when it's due, and hand it to the security guards so it doesn't beep on the way out. I know you're dying to know what book is so important that I had to send for it. Well, it's called "Re-Playing Shakespeare in Asia" and it consists of dozens of articles by the scholars that I've been seeking out and contacting. Great right? One of the articles is by Tapati Gupta and discusses Shakespeare in India specifically. She discussed how Romeo and Juliet was put into a Muslim-Hindu perspective. And something I observed was that Merchant of Venice was most popular in India at the peak of Muslim-Hindu conflict. Gupta discussed how King Lear has been adapted to be about a senile Raja who has lost control over his family and has lost the loyalty of  his daughters. She discussed a few other plays, that I won't go into detail about now. But it's all been very intriguing.

Also, I talked to a previous Shakespeare professor, not necessarily about my research but about Shakespeare and he said that Desdemona and Cordelia, to him, seem to be the most beloved female characters in Shakespeare. They are strong yet victimized women and people love them. I can't help but wonder if this is at least part of the reason King Lear and Othello are heavily studied in India, because of the feminine reinforcement.

I think, perhaps, what I want to look at is how society adapts Shakespeare to meet their needs and experience. Isn't that why we read? To relate to something? So, here's where I need help. I need input. Do you think this is something worth looking at and why? Is it something I should pursue or do you see other topics in my research that are more worth pursuing? I'm looking forward to hearing your responses.

Also, I had a couple ideas I've come across reinforce this thought that we adapt Shakespeare to meet our needs and to council our separate societies. On this site that one of my contacts created I found a page that contains a list of different countries and how Shakespeare is studied in each one respectively. Possibly one of the most interesting things that I found was about the Arab-World Shakespeare. Read this!

In the century since then, a vast variety of directors and adapters in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and other Arab countries have produced versions of Shakespeare’s plays to speak to their own and audiences and circumstances.  Othello has been adapted as a prooftext about Orientalism or a tragedy about gender violence.  Hamlet has been played as a Che Guevara in doublet-and-hose, his “To be or not to be” interpreted as a cry for justice in what many theatre-makers see as rotten states and out-of-joint times [see lecture on this].   Julius Caesar, while rarely produced, has recurred frequently in political discussions about despotism and democracy. The Merchant of Venice has not escaped polemical appropriation by various sides of the debate about Zionism’s role in the Middle East.  Romeo and Juliet has been staged as a demonstration of the dangers of blood feuds and arranged marriages.  Taking a different approach, a 1994 Romeo and Juliet production in East Jerusalem (co-directed by the Israeli Eran Baniel and the Palestinian Fouad Awad) had the Capulets played by Israeli Jewish actors speaking Hebrew and their rivals the Montagues played by Palestinian actors speaking Arabic.

 Moving on, in class a while back in our little discussion groups Carlie mentioned that there's an area in Idaho that has taken Romeo and Juliet out of their curriculum because of the high suicide rates.

On the site that I mentioned above I also found something about how poorly Shakespeare was received until the plays being performed were performed like melodramas. "The very first Brazilian Shakespearean performances by João Caetano occurred as early as 1835 and were attempts at a Brazilian performance free from French influence: Hamlet was enacted in the cities of Niterói and Rio de Janeiro, employing a Brazilian translation by Oliveira e Silva which was done from the original English text. The play was not well received by the public; according to João Caetano, this was so because the public was not ready for Shakespeare, being used to melodramas instead.  Thus, when five years later, in 1840, João Caetano tried Hamlet one more time, he turned to the French adaptation of Jean-François Ducis which transformed the tragedy into a melodrama."

I just can't help but think that every country, every area wants a Shakespeare to instruct them. They want his plays to give the answers and instructs. If they need governmental help they'll read Julius Caesar. If they're interested in racism they'll read the Merchant of Venice. Gender? Othello. If they're ruled by Kings they'll like Lear and so on. We read the Shakespeare we need. We read the Shakespeare that tells us about our culture. By reading Shakespeare cross-culturally we universalize and stretch the meaning perhaps far beyond what he originally intended but that's what we need. Society needs Shakespeare, so they create him.  They give his plays a meaning unique to their ideals, and then learn from the play they've marked as important literature.

Phase One

Progress Report

Exploration: Originally, the plan was to study parallels between Shakespeare and Beowulf  but the idea just didn't stick, I thought about looking more into the Shakespeare Apocrypha I found on the World Shakespeare Bibliography. And eventually decided to research more about Shakespeare in India

Textual Analysis: The above link has some textual analysis I did for the Beowulf idea. And this link has some as well.

Social Proof (finding): I've probably worked the most on this element because it is what's most out of my comfort zone. I went to the list of India's top 50 Universities and for the top five schools researched their English/Literature Department staff and found which Professors focus on Shakespeare and contacted them to ask how they do it. I emailed Professors from Stanford about a Shakespeare in Asia convention they had held. I also emailed a good friend of mine who is a retired professor in India.

Othello

Alright, for those who read my last post, you'll understand my interest in Othello...for those of you who haven't, read it, and you'll understand.  So in reading I, of course, had to make some character cards. Once I get home, I'll post pictures. Guys, seriously, if you haven't tried this you've got to. It's the only way I can keep characters straight, before I felt like I hit a wall when the fifth character was introduced "another one?!" but I can handle it now. What am I thinking so far? here's the gist.
Iago: yucky villain, really crummy guy
Desdemona: adventurous, oddly innocent, victim
Othello: falling from grace
Emilia: bitter old hag. I know she's not old enough to call a hag. But still.
Roderigo: go read a book or something

Brief, and perhaps insufficient, but those were my first impressions. 

Alright, themes. This is what is really my main interest because I'm thinking it is the themes of the plays that sparks Indian scholars to teach them. Othello discusses loyalty as he is betrayed by his men and friends. Othello falls under the illusion that nobody can be trusted. There is a theme of familial loyalty as Desdemona defies her father to marry Othello...something that reminded me of the women in India who defy arranged marriage. There is this idea of the bleakness of marriage. Tonight I'll be looking at some Indian reproductions of the play and I'll let you know which themes the focus on. Expect more on this tonight or tomorrow.

HE emailed ME

Okay, more excitement today ladies and gents. I found this  "Shakespeare in Asia" convention that was conducted in 2004 at Stanford, I found the email of the Professor who arranged everything and sent her an email. She emailed me back within an hour, which was super exciting. (Somehow this whole thing being through Stanford makes it so much more legit cause I keep thinking "I bet some kids that go to this school don't even talk to their Professors but I am" why is it so much less intimidating when you don't have an educational connection to them/they're not in control of your grades?) Okay, so anyways she basically said, "let me put you on to the main speaker from our conference, he's the man that made it all happen." So I'm thinking, sweet, she'll give me his email and then I can talk to him. But wait, no email was to be found. What? All I have is a name for this guy? Luckily, with a crazy Asian last name I was able to find him online and get an email (I feel like this paper is making me a stalker) BUT it wasn't necessary HE emailed ME. I guess when she said she'd put me on with someone else she meant she would do the work. So I got an email from him and he wrote it as if I had written him first, already responding to my questions that she must have passed on to him and it was such a legit feeling. Okay, here's the email. It's also giving me some direction on where to go with this whole thing....

Dear Mallory:

Thank you for your email.  I am glad you are interested in the website and event we organized at Stanford in 2004. A common thread in the adaptations of Shakespeare in Asia in general and in India particularly is that the tragedies that deal with family ties and questions of loyalty are more frequently performed and hotly debated, such as King Lear and Othello. You will find answers to your questions about how Shakespeare is performed in India on my new website:

Tons of VIDEOS (all free and open to the public): http://globalshakespeares.org/

Introduction to Shakespeare in India:
http://globalshakespeares.org/india/#

Essays:
http://globalshakespeares.org/essays-interviews/

Further readings:
http://globalshakespeares.org/bibliography/

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

best wishes,

Alexander Huang
Director, Dean's Scholars in Shakespeare Program
General Editor, The Shakespearean International Yearbook
Co-founder, Global Shakespeares (http://globalshakespeares.org/)
Associate Professor, Department of English
George Washington University
Rome Hall 750
801 22nd Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Email: acyhuang@gwu.edu
http://www.gwu.edu/~acyhuang/

Ps. Check out that credentials list...this guy is legit and he actually cares about what I'm studying, long before I did. Ah!

Woo Hoo!!

Great news ladies and gentlemen! I've heard back from another one of the people I contacted (one person emailed me back but only said they'd get back to me with more information). So, I heard back from a retired Professor of Philosophy in Visakahapatnam, India. I asked him what the school curriculum is like as far as Shakespeare goes and he said that when he was in school they read King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello. He went on to say, "Lady Macbeth always fascinated me , she must have been a great wife to Macbeth though it was a lost cause." He told me that now, Shakespeare is still taught but not as deeply because of the "frenzy for technical pursuits." He thanked me for asking him this question, saying that these works are dear to his heart. It really is a cool feeling to have someone halfway around the world acknowledge what you're doing and want to be a part of it.

Books and Research

This weekend I headed to the Shakespeare-section of the library and picked up a few books.

1. The Ophelia Syndrome (Thomas Plummer)
2. Pericles
3. Othello
4. A random book of Shakespeare explanations/footnotes/definitions etc.

When I finished checking everything out my husband just said, "Oh no." "What?" "You have a bunch of books, this means I'm not going to see you for a while." I'll admit, I'm a book-junkie, and I'd read a hundred books at a time if I could. But that's not the point of this post. I'm trying to work on the Shakespeare breadth requirement. I've never read Othello or Pericles, and I don't know hardly anything about Pericles, so I wanted to get into some new things. I heard about "The Ophelia Syndrome" a while back and I've wanted to read it since. It was written by a BYU professor and he applies the sort of Ophelia Syndrome to university life and says that if we let our professors spoon-feed us information we'll never learn for ourselves or reach individuation. It's pretty cool so far.

Othello serves a double duty, breadth, and help with research. I've been reaching out to several different friends that I have in India, interacting on blogs about India and looking at the journals that are being published from India and I feel like I've kind of hit a research wall because I'm just waiting for responses, and I know they'll come, I've just got to be patient.

ps. this doesn't have anything to do with anything but we got our wedding pictures back (finally) and I'm so stoked. This guy was one of the favorites...