Much Ado About Nothing

 

My focus has been narrowed down to how Shakespeare's works have influenced popular culture since written, as well as how we have taken and changed Shakespeare's works ourselves to fit our interests.

This Saturday I'm going to see the matinee showing of "Much Ado About Nothing". This is a modernized take on the story, and is set in a post-WWII stage. I intend to look at the following points while watching the production:

1. Has modernizing the story changed/added/detracted from any elements that Shakespeare originally included in the story?

2. How did the production crew go about changing it to a modern setting?

3. How would changing the setting to an even more modern setting further change the story line?

In preparation for the play, I will be going and reading the background on the original production of the play, as well as trying to read the original play prior to the viewing.

 I also researched some materials that I can use in my study of this topic and came across the book "Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture" by Douglas Lanier. I think this would be a good book to read and apply to various popular renditions of the plays.

Flashmobs and Advertising

 

So, this past Saturday I participated in a flashmob at the Provo Town Centre! It was on my bucket list, so thanks Max and Whitney for helping me to check on off!

We did have a minor change of plans before we actually performed our flashmob. Originally it was to be performed at University Mall, but the venue had to be changed to Provo Town Centre due to some stuffy management over at University.

I started looking into Flashmobs and publicity stunts, and was really interested to find that they are no longer simply something done by a random group of people for fun. More and more businesses are latching onto the concept, and are meeting with success. According to this article, "passers-by... were more inclined to take the brochures and listen to the volunteers to find out more about the event."

A few big name companies that have taken part in the flashmob phenomena include Coca-Cola,  the Esplanade, and Singapore 2010 CAN!.

Flashmobs aren't miracle events,  "All it can hope to achieve is through word of mouth where people talk about the activities to their friends. As a marketing or promotional tool, it must be supported by other strategies to achieve its intended impact." But if pulled off right, a flashmob will certainly garner plenty of attention. Take a look at this T-mobile flashmob campaign:

So, University Mall, Joke is on you!

Looking for Richard

So, I was looking for popular culture items, and I stumbled upon a really interesting movie project. Apparently Al Pacino directed and starred in a film of Richard III. Here is a brief description according to rottentomatoes.com:


Moving from New York's streets to London's reconstructed Globe Theater, and talking with everyone from strangers encountered by chance to scholars and... "Moving from New York's streets to London's reconstructed Globe Theater, and talking with everyone from strangers encountered by chance to scholars and celebrated actors, Al Pacino serves as the voluble, mercurial center of a film that interweaves commentary on Shakespeare with analysis of, rehearsals for, and key segments from, a film version of Richard III."

I think this is a really interesting take on Shakespeare. According to Wikipedia,

"Looking for Richard is a 1996 documentary film and the first film directed by Al Pacino. It is both a performance of selected scenes of William Shakespeare's Richard III and a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture.^"

^{Since my focus is Shakespeare and pop culture, I'm planning on getting this movie and watching it sometime this week. If anyone else is interested in joining me just let me know! We can all get together and watch!}

Ideas?

 

Ok so before I get to my main post, this is kind of a cry for help guys. I know Professor Burton wants us to focus our blog on one main thing (mine is pop culture and Shakespeare), but I'm not entirely sure as what I should be focusing all of this research towards. Do we need to write a full final blog post in the format of a research paper? And if so, does anyone have any ideas as to what I should be aiming my research towards? I'd appreciate any and all feedback! Thanks guys! :)

Close Read of a Sonnet!

 

CXVI

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

I love this sonnet. We read it in class for Valentine's Day, and I instantly fell in love with it. So I decided to make this my close read text. To start with, I looked up an article with tips on how to close read a text properly. In that text, there was basically a bit of an outline for how to look over this very sonnet. The article said to pay attention to a few key things:

1. form

2. rhyme scheme

3. repetition

4. metaphor

The first thing to note is the repetition of love, alters/alteration, and remover/remove. Since a sonnet is so short, the words chosen to be included in the sonnet are very important. The repetition causes the reader to stop and pay attention to the main themes of this sonnet. The next thing I noticed was the rhyme scheme. "Ever fixed mark" and "every wandering bark" are paired together in a rhyme scheme. Notice that they are both opposites. One is fixed, one is wandering, bringing a sense of contrast and comparison. "Rosy lips and cheeks" is paired with "brief hours and weeks", which conveys to the reader that fleeting things such as rosy lips and cheeks are only temporary, and if that is all that you base love on it will fade in "brief hours and weeks" as well. The next lines that are paired are "sickle's compass come" and  "edge of doom". Shakespeare is showing the reader that when time and age come to a "love that is not love", one that is based on "rosy lips and cheeks", doom comes to that relationship, and it ends. The use of metaphors such as tempests and the heavens suggest forces that are powerful and unalterable. Love, true love, is also such a force.

Literary Analysis of Hermione from "The Winter's Tale"

 

So in reading Hermione's defense in "The Winter's Tale", I have to say the woman was quite an educated and well-spoken individual. She plays upon various aspects in her defense, all of which are very successful (except, for not really in the play, because she "dies" anyway). To outline a few:

1. She admits she knows that claiming innocence will do her no good, since it requires that she contradict her husband and king.

2.She personifies things like "false accusation", "tyranny", and "patience". This makes these things more tangible and life-like.

3. She reminds the king to look upon her past actions as proof of her innocence. She has been faithful as queen and bedmate to her husband, the king.

4. She contrasts life and honor, and tells the king to essentially go ahead and take her life, but spare her honor. This is very effective, as an honorable woman wouldn't have an affair with her husband's childhood friend and then stick around to defend her reputation. "To me can life be no commodity."

5. She stays strong. She tells the king at one point that his threats are pointless and to spare her of them. That which he threatens her with is no threat to her, as she has already lost all that make her life worth living (his favor, her son, her daughter, and her reputation).

Hermione is a strong woman with a very tragic story. In my opinion, Shakespeare portrays Hermione as a stronger and more righteous character than any other in this story, and in doing so puts forward a very strong and intelligent female presence.

Shakespop?! - Shakespeare and Popular Culture

 

So for my scholarly article that I brought to class, I looked for something to do with pop culture and Shakespeare. That's actually the focus of my blog (I believe I made not of this quite a few posts ago actually) and I'm attempting to make a connection between Shakespeare and music, as well as movies, books, plays, and other digital mediations. 

The article I found was entitled"Introduction: Whither Shakespop? Taking Stock of Shakespeare in Pop Culture" by Elizabeth Abele. This article was really interesting to read. It highlights the many forms of pop culture that Shakespeare's works have taken. To quote the article, "From being a marker of highbrow elitist fare, Shakespeare has become a commodity and brand that producers and marketers can exploit."

The article is more of an overview of many other articles looking at different uses of Shakespeare in pop culture, and the effects these adaptations are having on the inherent meaning. One such question is "Does Shakespop represent an enhanced appreciation or has it merely bred contempt—and exploitation?"

There have been many spin-offs, from numerous modern plays, to movies as well known as "10 Things I Hate About You" and "West Side Story", to corporate training manuals such as "The Bard of Enron: From Shakespeare to Noir Humanism", to comic books.

The conclusion reached in the text is best summed up in this quote. "Hamlet nor Cahban can escape the narrative logics in which they are inscribed (1966,212)—but in the narratives of American texts that appropriate Hamlet, our favorite prince can and often does escape his inherited burdens."

This article has been a good springboard for me to look at other sources that try to study Shakespeare and pop culture. It has given me good overview, as well as other sources to utilize for more in-depth research into other angles and avenues!