Thesis

My current thesis and conclusion are:

Shakespeare is still popular in popular culture, the kind of culture that is of the people and for the people, but he belongs not just to the popular or just to the high-brow but he can be found comfortably fitting in throughout our culture as a cultural reference point and an inspiration for new art and literature and this can be best seen in his best-known play, Hamlet.

Is this a good or a bad thing? "Does familiarity breed contempt?" (which is a question asked and discussed in “Introduction: whither Shakespop? Taking stock of Shakespeare in popular culture” which I intend to talk more about soon) Perhaps, but most of the people who despise it now, would still, I think, not appreciate it without all of the cultural strings attached, without the “decontextualized appropriations solely for commercial gain”(another quote from Wither Shakespop) and without all the parodies. I don’t necessarily think that everything that’s attached itself to Shakespeare is good, or anything of the sort, but I do think that new interpretations and spins inspired from and working off of Shakespeare’s work themselves benefit from using Shakespeare as a source and that they can also benefit a study of Shakespeare’s works by breathing new life into the old texts.

In Search of a Focus

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.

Plan

So, my plan is very simple. For

1. Shakespeare Literacy
        a. Breadth- I intend to read 7 plays, because I like the number 7. I'll read Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, maybe Winter's Tale, and maybe Henry V.
        b. Depth- watch 3 different versions of a play, and do some analysis too. I'm thinking about maybe focusing on Much Ado About Nothing (as it's one of my favourites, and my blog's named after it) or Richard III (since looking at things like historical context would be so fun to look into for this one).
        c. Performance- I plan on seeing at least a summary clip of all the plays I read, and to watch long versions of more than one, and of various sorts of performances.
        d. Legacy- I'll keep my eye out for references to Shakespeare, and occasionally search them out.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
        a. Textual Analysis- I'll try and point out some textual analysis of each play I read.
        b. Contextual analysis- I expect to go into this mostly with Richard III, but I'll make sure to make more than two posts going into context.
        c. Application of literary theories- I know there are a lot of these, and though I'm not particularly fond of them, I'll be sure to look up how others have applied these theories and I'll report on my reactions.
        d. Analysis of digital mediations- I guess this means that I need to look into youtube movies of the plays. Really, I think I'll just comment on what my classmates find. So far there's been a lot of interesting adaptations showing up on the other blogs which I've enjoyed.

3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
        a. Performance- I'll deal with this one later, though I think that this would be preferable in a group.
        b. Literary Imitation- I'd like to borrow some of Shakespeare's characters for my Creative Writing class somehow. I might also try and write a sonnet. (Though sonnets are really hard, I have a hard time with iambic pentameter.)
       
4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
        a. Formal Writing- Some of my posts will, I suppose, be more formal, researched, and developed.
        b. Informal Writing- The more common blog posts.
        c. Connecting- I'll be commenting on the other blogs, and making random comments to my roommates...