Self Evaluation: Shakespeare's Modern Influence

As part of our course requirements, I am to evaluate my own blog, based off of Dr. Burton's Evaluation Criteria. My focus has been on Shakespeare's lasting legacy, specifically his influence on William Fualkner. I will be using the Evaluation Criteria to judge my blog based off of Posts, Research, Personal and Social, and Design.

Shakespeare's Influence on Other Authors

I found a gem of a website, that I'm sure others in the class have also found. It is www.shakespeare-online.com!! While snooping around I found a list of some of the other successful authors that Shakespeare has influenced.

Here is a page of many of the modern works (plays, literature and music) that has references or explicit influence from Shakespeare.

Past Faulkner; Other Modern Woks Influenced by Shakespeare

I wanted to look over some of the other popular modern works that have been influenced by Shakespeare. In addition to just listing some of my findings I have also decided to look at how this has kept Shakespeare's legacy alive throughout time.

Peer Review: Ladd, Shakespeare and Minorities

As part of my peer review I am to look at Ladd's blog, Fa'a Shakeseare. His main focus for blogging about Shakespeare is how minority roles in Shakespeare and modern productions/interpretations of Shakespeare's work divided the audience. I will be reviewing his blog based off of four main criteria: Posts, Research, Personal and Social, and Design.

Updated Hub Post: Shakespeare's Influence on Modern Literature

So I decided to update my Hub Post to include a thesis and conclusion. With my Shakespeare class, and this blog, I have really been able to use some freedom and study what I want to, in relation to Shakespeare. My topic of choice has been Shakespeare's influence on modern literature. I have specifically been looking at Shakespeare's influence on William Faulkner, however I am now going to turn my attention these last three weeks to what this all means.

Thesis: Shakespeare's influence on William Faulkner and modern literature has not been his legacy of plot designs and characters that modern authors have used as tempaltes in their own work, yet Shakespeare's plot designs and characters have inspired the furthering of the literary cannon. Because of Shakespeare's story-telling methods, modern authors, such as Faulkner, have been able to continue to reinvent methods of story-telling.

I first looked into some of the tactics that Shakespeare used to create his enduring plot structures and characters through the lens of language. Shakespeare's language in Richard II and Hamlet create either reflection (inaction) or action.

Here is a study of the biographical similarities between Faulkner and Shakespeare. I took a look at this just to get started. Interestingly enough there are some strong similarities between the two authors, however, this is not the cause for their success as writers.

A comparison of Macbeth's soliloquy and The Sound and The Fury. This was the first post of a few where I compared The Sound and The Fury to Shakespeare's works. While much of this soliloquy can be related to the plot/characters of The Sound and The Fury, it is interesting to see how Faulkner takes some of the original themes from Shakespeare's work and translates them into his own work.

Character analysis of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury. In this post I took a closer look at the characters in The Sound and The Fury. Faulkner created his own, original, pedestrian in nature, characters.

A comparison of Shakespearean and Faulknerean (?) characters. I compared some of Faulkner's characters to Shakespeare's characters. While there is plenty to compare, I think I should note that there is drastic differences, supporting my claim that Shakespeare did more than just lay a template for future authors, he paved a way for authors to invent characters.

Conclusion: From what I have done I can say that Faulkner has further created and explored plots, themes and characters that relate to human experience generally. He did this without copying Shakespearean theory and templates, and has thus expanded modern literature from Shakespeare's influence.

I recognize that I need to create better cohesion between my posts, and in turn my entire blog. As I finalize some of my research on Faulkner, and other modern literature that has been influenced by Shakespeare, I plan on creating more unity. So be looking for an updated Hub Post and conclusion.

Hub Post: Shakespeare's influence on modern literature

With my Shakespeare class, and this blog, I have really been able to use some freedom and study what I want to, in relation to Shakespeare. My topic of choice has been Shakespeare's influence on modern literature. I have specifically been looking at Shakespeare's influence on William Faulkner, however I am now going to turn my attention these last three weeks to what this all means. Here is a list of posts I have made throughout my preliminary research:

Here is a study of the biographical similarities between Faulkner and Shakespeare.

A comparison of Macbeth's soliloquy and The Sound and The Fury.

Character analysis of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury.

A comparison of Shakespearean and Faulknerean (?) characters.

I recognize that I need to create better cohesion between my posts, and in turn my entire blog. As I finalize some of my research on Faulkner, and other modern literature that has been influenced by Shakespeare, I plan on creating more unity. So be looking for another Hub Post, and I'll update this one as well.

Lastest will and will

here is the latest. As I said I'm really struggling with Shakespeare's dialog, the diction mainly.

Zuckerberg

So I am still working on my play, Will and Will. One of the hardest things I am having to deal with is the dialect of the two Will's. I am a little more confident with Faulkner's dialect, however switching between him and Shakespeare's dialog when they are conversing has proven to be quite difficult. I am writing the play on a program, and am trying to find a way to post it cleanly on here, as soon as I do I'll post what I've got so far. Big thanks to everyone who has commented and helped me out!

Dr. Burton has been talking all semester about developing patterns and habits in our lives to continually learn. One of the best ways to do this is with peers, however, eventually we won't have classes to go to, and so social learning will be a strong alternative. This can be accomplished a number of ways, and social networking and blogging is a huge part of that. I have enjoyed learning how to learn and how to document my learning here on my blog.

Mark Zuckerberg came to visit BYU last week and had a lot to share. One of the most important things that I took away was that Mr. Zuckerberg thinks. And he thinks differently than most people. He seems like one of those people that is constantly analyzing different situations, ideas and processes. He looks for ways to improve the world and to improve his company.

He is obviously a great example of learning socially, something that I can strive for.

Sources

This past week I worked on creating a SOURCES page, where I listed all the sources I have used in my research this far in the semester.

I also created an OTHER LINKS page for some of the less-academic things I find, such as YouTube videos and other fun things I find.

Will and Will Play

In an attempt to fulfill the "literary imitation" requirement of the "Engage Shakespeare Creatively" Learning Outcome I have decided to write a play, where William Faulkner and William Shakespeare meet. Basically Faulkner is going to get drunk, and in his dillusion he is going to meet Shakespeare, and gain respect for him. That's all I have now, but I'm going to be calling on all the playwrights out there for some criticism/help. Here is the first scene:

Characters

Just as Shakespeare used characters and plots from other playwrights, Faulkner also borrowed some of Will's stuff, so I guess it all comes full circle.

I was promted by Dr. Burton to look at some of the Characters in The Sound and The Fury in relation to Shakespearean characters. Here's what I've come up with:

Night Letter to the Reader

Well the article I was planning on reading for today's post turned out not to be what I had originally thought it was... so we will move forward to some Billy Collins poetry! Max had recommended that I check out Night Letter to The Reader.

Character Analysis of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury

This week I am going to:

Finish my textual analysis of Macbeth's soliloquy.
Read, analyze and comment on the article: Shakespeare, Faulkner, and the Expression of the Tragic.
Start looking into Billy Collin's poetry.

This is my fourth post about Faulkner and Shakespeare, the second post specifically about Macbeth's soliloquy and The Sound and The Fury.

For this post I am going to look at some of the "lighted fools" of The Sound and the Fury.

Macbeth's soliloquy and Faulkner

My original focus was to look at modern allusions to Shakespeare's work in modern literature. However I've been finding a lot about Shakespeare's influence on William Faulkner's works. I still want to look at the poet, Billy Collins, and the playwright Tom Stoppard. For now, however, I'll be studying William Faulkner's works. This is my third post about Faulkner. (The first: praise for Faulkner, the second: power and fate in their works and the third: biographical similarities) This post is going to look directly at how Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury is littered with imagery and metaphor from a famous soliloquy from Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Flash Mob

Last Saturday a group of us participated in a Flash Mob! We preformed a modified scene from Romeo and Juliet. I have almost no acting experience, and not like this was a major production or anything, but we did practice and collaborate, maybe just like Shakespeare did, to make it a success. It was fun for me to actually get into Shakespeare, as apposed to just reading/watching it.

It was a lot of fun, a little nerve racking, and over all very successful! Watch it here!

Biographical Similarities

So I found a decent website published by the Center for Faulkner Studies. It confirms that Shakespeare was a great influence on Faulkner's writing. Faulkner once said that "Shakespeare's work provides 'a casebook on mankind'. He also said "if a man has a great deal of talent he can use Shakespeare as a yardstick". Shortly before Faulkner's death he said that all writers "yearn to be as good as Shakespeare".

There is a great section of the article that discusses the biographical similarities between Will and Will.
"The parallels in the lives and careers of the two writers are remarkably striking. Both were born in provincial small towns but found their eventual success in metropolitan cities, Shakespeare in London and Faulkner in New York and Hollywood. Both had a great love of nature and the rural outdoors. Neither received a great deal of formal education. Both started out as poets but shortly turned to other narrative forms, Faulkner to fiction and Shakespeare to drama. Both had extramarital affairs that were reflected in some of their writings. Each wrote both tragedies and comedies, and in each case their final work was a comedy, Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Faulkner’s The Reivers. A number of dominant themes and emphases are common to both writers, including the imaginative use of historical materials, the incorporation of both tragic and comic views of life, and the paradoxical tension between fate (in Faulkner’s case, determinism) and free will. Moreover, both writers exhibit a fascination for experimental form and language, flouting conventional rules to create new narrative structures and delighting in neologisms, puns, and other forms of word play. Finally, both writers were acutely interested in the paradoxical relationship of life and art."

Getting Started

Here are a few links that classmates have shared with me to help get me started on my focus! Thanks guys!

Caroline found a reference to Shakespeare in Robert Bloch's psycho.

Max suggested I read the work of another Bill... Billy Collins' "Night Letter to the Reader".

Cara made a post about common modern day phrases coined by Shakespeare.

While I'm still working on narrowing things down, I have had a lot of success so far.

I've been re-reading The Tempest, and have found some interesting themes throughout the first half of the play:
There is some major issues between those in power and those without power (masters and servants). From the very beginning of the play this is evident in the interaction between the boatswain and the nobles. Also present in the first scene is mention of fate and destiny. Gonzalo humorously takes confidence that the boat will not sink because it is the destiny of the boatswain to be hung. He later says "The wills above be done!" The conflict between power and being subject to that power is seen in many characters (Prospero and Caliban; Prospero and Ariel; Alonso and his nobles). Some of these relationships are portrayed as positive and some negative. Even betrayal is explored in the play.

Interestingly enough, William Faulkner often incorporates the dramatic issue of power into his works. In Absalom, Absalom!, Thomas Sutpen, is a man possessed with gaining power, and goes to any means necessary to establish his rule. Ironically enough he gets a slave pregnant and has a child, who is destined to not have any power because he has a black mother, despite looking white. He is brutally murdered by his half brother for this same reason. Throughout the novel there is great conflict between the ideas of possessing actual power and the image of having power.

Also in doing a little research of Faulkner's works, he did write a three novel series, the first of which was titled "The Hamlet". I think this was one of his lesser famous works because I haven't been able to find out a whole lot about the novel.

Will and Will

I'm headed to the bookstore/library to pick up a copy of "The Sound and The Fury" by Faulkner. However, I took a look at two Faulkner books that I own, "Absalom, Absalom!" and "As I Lay Dying". On the back of the books there are a few critic's praise of Faulkner:

"For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." -- Ralph Ellison

"For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity [Faulkner's works] are without equal in out time and country." -- Robert Penn Warren

I believe similar things were said, and have been said of Shakespeare. One of the main reasons his works have lasted the test of time is because through his characters and plots human nature is exposed. This is why his plays are easily related as a reader.

Help Wanted

After meeting with Dr. Burton for my mid-term evaluation I have decided to focus my Shakespeare studies on allusions to Shakespeare in modern literature. I recognize that this is very broad, and over the next week I plan on narrowing it down to something a little more tangible. Off the bat there are a few things I want to explore, and perhaps this will help me narrow my topic. As I said earlier I plan on looking at William Faulkner's works for allusions to Shakespeare. I also think I am going to take a look into Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Please comment and leave any suggestions you have, of if you think it'd be cool for me to study something please let me know!! Thanks!

Hermione's Trial and upcoming studies..

Has anyone ever played the game "Mafia"? Hermione's trial reminded me a lot of a game of Mafia..

Player 1(King): You're Guilty
Player 2(Hermione): What else can I say other than no I am not.
Player 1: Yes you are, kill her!
Narrator (Oracle): Nope, innocent, she's a citizen.
Player 1: I don't believe it
Narrator: Yup, it's true.
Player 1: Oh, dang.
Player 2: Great, now look what you've done!

I'm a little behind in finding my niche in my Shakespeare studies and I'm meeting with Dr. Burton tomorrow, so hopefully we'll figure something out. In the meantime I plan on re-reading The Tempest much slower and with more intensity than my first encounter. I'll post about what I'm learning/observing later this week.

speeches

In class on Monday we discussed the rhetorical tools used in Brutus' and Antony's speech in Act III Scene 2 of Julius Caesar. Brutus uses a chiastic pattern in his speech to get his audiences attention. He then goes through a very logical explanation of his reaction to the events leading up to Caesar's murder. Brutus' speech is full of abstract images, while Antony's is much more visual. Antony uses imagery to paint a picture for the audience, allowing them to easily follow along. At the end he relies on emotion to draw the favor of the crowd by pausing drastically, overcome by emotion.

I looked at some of the classic speeches from U.S. Presidents to find some of their rhetorical tools.



President Bush relies heavily on emotion. He also creates logical analogies to show America's resolve despite the physical damage done by the attacks.



JFK delivers a bipartisan speech of unity and progress. He creates a sense of pride and duty in the American citizens, and is thus able to promote his agenda.



President Obama appeals to the crowd by thanking them, inviting their applause, showing his energy and referring to him and his audience as "we".

Peer Evaluation

Brooke has an awesome blog, and one that I plan on referring to as an example of successful blogging. She has 12 posts, all of which are of high quality. Her last post, Shakespeare Through The Eyes Of An Actor, is a great post. She had previously emailed her brother asking him a varity of questions from his perspective as an actor who played Othello, and in this post she records his responses. Honestly I have no ideas for improving this blog! It is that good! Maybe a good idea would be to use the “read more” option so that more posts appear on the blog, and so that they are easier to digest. Great blog Brooke!!!

Mid-Term Evaluation

I have met the reading goals I have set for myself thus far in the course. I have read and briefly studied a play from each of the genres, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Richard II, King Lear, and Hamlet. This has fulfilled the breadth requirement. I have also read through a few sonnets, including Sonnet 116, 32, 24, 120. I have read an article comparing the language and dialog of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream written by Ian Johnston. As I advance in my learning plan to study in greater depth specific works of Shakespeare, I plan to read more secondary works and other resources.

I have enjoyed reading through the different genres of Shakespeare’s works. I think what has impacted me most is from one of my first blog posts where I question why Shakespeare has endured so long, and why is he and his works so popular and still studied today. In later posts I refer to this question and have come to believe that it is because of the great emotion that he puts into his characters. This emotion is easily relatable as a reader, and thus these personal, emotional themes that Shakespeare invokes is what has allowed him to be studied throughout the ages.

I don’t think I’ve done anything really great so far. Most of my posts have been pretty minimal. One thing that I really want to improve on is looking for outside sources to include in my posts. I think that by referencing articles and secondary sources I will enhance the quality of my posts and it will be more beneficial to my peers and me.

Max has been a great help, in that he has shared with me in class some things that he is doing on his blog, and on his comments that he makes on other’s blogs. This has helped me have a more focused idea of what to blog about. Jennifer Prusse also has made some good comments on my blog, which helped me to go deeper than my original post did.

BBC Shakespeare Animated Tales - The Tempest - Part 1

This is the first part of the BBC animated series of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

This play seems quite different than other Shakespeare plays I've read. From just doing some quick research (google) I found that this play was written in a neoclassical style and is hence more organized. A play within a play is common in many of Shakespeare's works, however The Tempest has more imagery and is more self-aware. I am looking forward to doing some more research with this play to fulfill my depth requirement.

This week

My reading/learning plan for this week is as follows:

Watch King Lear (see below)
Read The Tempest
Begin looking a little into correlation, biographically, between William Faulkner and William Shakespeare.
I believe that one of Faulkner's books, The Sound and The Fury, was directly influenced by The Tempest, and I'd like to look into that as well. Now that our breadth requirement of reading a play from each genre is complete I will be able to do some depth studies. If I can find enough evidence about William's influence on William, I'll read some of William's works that were influenced by William.

Happy Valentine's Day

Celebrating Valentine's Day while studying Shakespeare can be awesome!! There is plenty of material to fit the mood of anybody on Valentine's Day. There is extremely ushy gushy romantic, depressing, suicidal, and lonely material to draw from. Probably the most used of Shakespeare's works on February 14 would be Sonnet 116. However I prefer Sonnet 130.

Sonnet 130 is somewhat humorous, but when taken seriously, I believe it to be the most romantic and sweet.

The way Shakespeare sets up this poem, structurally, is very appealing to the reader and is easy to follow and understand. Shakespeare begins with the eyes, then goes to the lips, body, even breath of his mistress comparing his mistress with what some would consider ideal physical attributes. He compares the physcial attributes to natural beauty found in nature, such as snow, coral, roses. He makes similes, metaphors and images such as eyes like the sun, coral red lips, rosy cheeks. After pointing out that his mistress doesn't have any of these ideal physical attributes, he confesses that he has a rare love for her in the final couplet.

Sonnet 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grown on her head.
I have seen roses demasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Movie

This weekend I am going to watch King Lear, a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Shakespeare's enduring tragedy. In this production, Ian McKellen plays King Lear. Luckily I can steam this video on my computer via Netflix.

King Lear

I chose to read King Lear as my tragedy mainly because I was already familiar with Romeo and Juliet, and because my professor, Dr. Burton, named one of his children after King Lear. My goal is have the play finished by Monday, and then look into some modern interpretation of the play in film. Does anyone know any good rendition of the play?

The Issue of Language

I can't remember what I was looking for when I came across this article, but it has proven a good find and worthy to share on my blog.

The article is The Issue of Language: Introduction to Richard II and Hamlet by Ian Johnston, he teaches at Malaspina-University College.

The main argument of the article is that by pairing Richard II and Hamlet, despite the differences between the two plays, will also us to focus on the “intimate link between important issues of characterization and the styles of speech displayed by particular characters”. Johnston wrote this article with the hope that a greater appreciation of Shakespeare’s varied use of language to denote character and evoke central themes.

Johnston designates two dimensions of dialog, reflection and action. Ideally both will coexist equally, however he explores different characters whose dialog is mainly reflection or mainly action. The comparison is made between Richard and Hamlet both being compulsive talkers, and how they foil against Bolingbroke and Claudius, who are better listeners and use their language as action.

One example that Johnston makes that I found very noteworthy is in Act 2 of Richard II. Bolingbroke listens, speaking very little, and his power increases with each scene, however, in contrast Richard speaks constantly and his power correspondingly weakens.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

So I have begun reading A Midsummer Night's Dream and I am enjoying it a lot more than I did Richard II. A quick few things that have caught my attention in Act I:

"The course of true love never did run smooth"... How true!! Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Shakespeare's work has endured centuries, because he can speak to the heart and emotional chords of his audience.

Also, the play that the common men are working on seems to me to be familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it... two lovers, forbidden by feuding families, suicide... hmmmmm. I know I've seen this somewhere else....

I am enjoying the plot build up, and am excited to keep reading.

beginning Richard II

Okay, so before I read The Tragedy of King Richard the Se.cond here is what I did:

1. Looked up the SparkNotes of Richard II, as well as the Wikipedia page
   

• From this I understood the basic plot, got to know the characters and was ready to dive into the actual text.

2. I also read the introduction in the Necessary Shakespeare text book.

• This helped me to understand some of the basic historical information such as:
  
• This play was prohibited from being performed in England because the character of Richard II was extremely easily related to Queen Elizabeth. Both being weak, and the play being in favor of replacing the existing monarch.

3. I began reading the play

• What I noticed was that the language is beautiful.. more to come on this!
  

Sonnet 16

Performed by Jake Taylor of the Swim Team

Hamlet [3.4]

My favorite part of Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 4. There is some great dialog in this scene.
He kills Polonius:
"How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!"
He confronts his mother:
"Have you eyes?" he asks her. She replies that "These words like daggers enter in my ears"
He sees his father's ghost, but his mother does not (which raises the question as to if there really is a ghost, or if it "is the very coinage of [his] brain").
He explains his sanity (or lack there-of):
"I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft."
And thus begins the RAGE of Hamlet.
Which has led me to think of other characters in literature and film who have been brought to rage, the insane, murderous rage.
Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills in Taken.
Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight.
Mattie Ross in True Grit.
Clytie Supten in Absalom, Absalom!
The Butler in The Tell-Tale Heart.
Ammon in the Book of Mormon (Alma). (Sorry, but he did cut off a lot of arms... RAGE).

Billy Shakespeare

This disgusts me. It is hard to watch, so if you want to skip to the "Billy Shakespeare" part go to 0:52

Why?

I was talking with my cousin about my Shakespeare class, and he asked me why Shakespeare is still studied today, and what made his work last so long and become so famous. Oh, that's easy, its because he came up with some really great original works! Oh wait... he didn't. Hmmmm...

The Necessary Shakespeare gives plenty of examples of modern day Shakespeare, both in film and on stage, which helps keep his legacy alive. But still, why make more productions? According to the text, voluntary class enrollment (unlike mine) in Shakespeare courses in colleges and universities is rising. But still, why read and study Shakespeare? The text says that every reader needs to answer that question for him or herself, but also asserts that "Shakespeare is an extraordinary poet and he excels in the breadth and incisiveness of his depictions of human experience".

Shakespeare did write a LOT, but there is more than just quantity that made Shakespeare so enduring.

Shakespeare popularized the basic archetypal characters and plots that we use today. Yes, he plagiarized. But he improved what he stole, and because of that the basic characters, plots and story-lines that he used became the base of which most all literature comes from, even today.

I am going to explore this question more thoroughly throughout the semester. I want to know why I have to take this class, why Shakespeare is still in modern culture and literature, and why his works are still celebrated today.

Learning Objectives/Goals

Part of the Shakespeare class assignments is to achieve some basic learning outcomes. Here is my plan:

1. Gain "Shakespeare Literacy"
a. Breadth- Read Hamlet, a number of sonnets (let's say become very familiar with 6), read The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
b. Depth- Research, analyze, study, blog about one of the plays I read, not sure which one yet. And do the same plus memorize a sonnet or two.
c. Performance- I'm keep my ear to the ground to find out local performances that I can see, I really would like to see as many as I can, at least 2.
d. Legacy- I'll probably blog about what I learn as I progress through the semester. (Is that too weak?)

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
This will be done through a number of posts... focusing on the sonnets and plays that I choose to focus on.

3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
Still working on this... I'm thinking of making some YouTube videos of performances of different scenes, but making it my own, doing something creative. In other words... TBD.

4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
This blog will do a good job of that, and I'll try and find some other ways to share Shakespeare.

Ohhhhh boy. So basically my plan looks pretty weak. I'll enhance it as I go along, for now I'll stick to my reading of Hamlet.

Hello

My name is John Kendrick, and I am an English major and swimmer at BYU. I created this blog to document my experiences and research with Shakespeare as I take the required Shakespeare course for English majors. My previous encounter with Shakespeare has been very limited, just what my other English classes have required, read Hamlet, analyze a few sonnets, see a theater production or two... nothing too extensive. I am excited to really DIVE into Shakespeare and engulf myself with his works, biography and analysis.

I love being an English major. I kind of stumbled into being an English major, but am so glad that it worked out! I have loved getting to know the famous works and authors of the world. Some personal favorites are James Joyce, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Lord Byron. Maybe through these next few months William Shakespeare will make his way onto my list of favorites.

I have been reading Hamlet, which as I mentioned I have read before for another English class. However my first encounter with Hamlet had the feel of something like a chore. I just plowed through it to get through it. This second time around I am really taking the effort to delve into it, really get a feel and learn for myself why this production is such an important part of the literary cannon. I am looking for extra help... readings, videos on YouTube, extra notes, not to mention the wealth of information that is in our text, The Necessary Shakespeare. I'll post the helpful things I find.