I'm afraid that I don't really know what the focus of my research is. I've tried to concentrate largely on Shakespeare and his relation to popular culture, or to culture in general, and I have found Shakespeare in many places.
So far I've discussed how: in both the movie and the book versions of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility MaryAnne and Willoughby quote Shakespeare's sonnets, I remember quite a few references or allusions to Romeo and Juliet, I found that the British TV show Doctor Who has an entire episode relating to The Shakespeare Code and a TV charity called Comic Relief had a comedy skit with both Doctor Who jokes and Shakespeare jokes, a simple google search of the phrase "all the world's a stage" turned up tons of hits in all sorts of places, in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov I found more than one reference though I've only yet written about the first instance, and even the names of Uranus's moons are Shakespeare-themed. I've looked into how Shakespeare was influenced by the popular culture of his own time, and the example of the similarities between Hamlet and Tom a Lincoln.
I've found myself slowly drawn towards Hamlet, as I've found connections between that play and life. In the same class discussion which led to my post on Justice and Mercy about The Merchant of Venice, we talked about Hamlet and the Reformation. I've watched two different film adaptations which each connected to other ideas that interest me (such as fanfiction to Branagh's in a vague way which really had more to do with the play than anything particular and Doctor Who to Tennant's though Jessica's post does a better job of showing the connections). I've done two posts on Ophelia on impulses, the second one spinning off an insignificant painting in the first. But I have become rather interested in the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia, what influenced their creation and how they've influenced people (mostly writers of one sort or another) and become an allusion to illustrate ideas.
Ideas for later posts include:
1 A depth search of a phrase and what it is most commonly is used for, and then about how it is used there
2 Hamlet and Reformation Ideas
3 Hamlet and Dostoevsky (the philosophical prince and philosophical writer and reflections on suicide)
4 A Creative Work where Hamlet and Company read and comment on the play Hamlet... set before the play.
5 A Creative Work of The Merchant of Venice... Star Wars Edition, a rough draft rather than the idea
6 Romeo's Depth (or lack thereof) before he met Juliet, as shown by his word choice illustrated by a wordle
7 Hamlet and types of perfomances (the play itself, Hamlet playing at insanity, deceptions, the player's speech, The Mousetrap with its various styles)
8 Or similarly Hamlet and Clowning (strongly reflecting the ideas of the same book--Shakespeare and Elizabethan Popular Culture--discussed in Pondering the Definitions of Popular Culture)
So, I'm thinking of focusing on Hamlet and Popular culture, but I have no further focus. Any ideas?
