Hamlet

Hamlet Creative Project Due Friday January 9, 2009 100 points

Parodies, Films, Etc.

More on Ophelia More on Pirates!?!

Older Posts: =At last, for Yorick. Bequeathed skull stars in Hamlet= We haven't gotten there yet (in fact, it won't come up for a while), but the image of the skulll has long been associated with Hamlet's soliloquies. Now, someone's life long dream to appear on stage has come true...as a prop! Read the story about André Tchaikowsky, whose skull is now a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company! http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article5233132.ece



Read a [|Review of Hamlet]peformed at the real [|Elsinore Castle] You may note that [|Vivien Leigh] (who'll later star as Blanche Dubois in the film version of [|Streetcar]) plays Ophelia. [|Alec Guinness], before he found the Force, plays the small part of Osric. Olivier, of course, is Hamlet.


 * Older Posts:**

View clips Assignment: 1. Watch the introduction to Shakespeare (Part I) in preparation for a quiz. Pay attention to biographical details, information about Elizabethan theater, and other pertinent facts.

2. Define: aside, soliloquy, iambic pentameter, groundling, Senecan tragedy. For a quiz

3. Investigate one of the optional topics (authorship, interactive web page, the longer documentary) and prepare a written response. For this assignment you have a choice. Option 1. Leave a shorter response posting in under the discussion tab of this sapce. You can start a discussion with a new post or respond to someone else. The caveat is that this will be part of a public discourse. Option 2. Type up a longer response (1 full page, double spaced) and submit in class. This is just a reflection piece. What did you discover of interest? What surprised you? What might others find noteworthy? How did this change/challenge/enhance/etc your understanding of Shakespeare and his plays?

Part One: Childhood (3:29)
 * I. Shakespeare Overview (Mandatory)**

media type="youtube" key="bE91KaA5vjQ" height="344" width="425"

Education and Young Adulthood (3.42) media type="youtube" key="ntZsVqmnrcg" height="344" width="425"

London in 1587 (6.38)

media type="youtube" key="Iyp8Ca6YqLw" height="344" width="425"

England Under Queen Elizabeth (3.13) media type="youtube" key="q4oaGFy6Wjk" height="344" width="425"

The Globe: World of Theater media type="youtube" key="DCWxN15vqxM" height="344" width="425" Shakespeare's Life in the Theater (2.39) media type="youtube" key="uNVI-7Zx2jk" height="344" width="425"

Shakespeare's Later life and Legacy media type="youtube" key="CZ1-KWvRTWc" height="344" width="425"

II. Questions about authorship (optional)
Christopher Marlowe using Shakespeare as a pen name. media type="youtube" key="OsJTbWF1-lg" height="344" width="425"
 * "Much Ado About Something"**

[|Mystery Man] A new documentary revives an old controversy: Was actor and landowner William Shakespeare merely a front man for Christopher Marlowe, the flamboyant gay genius and shadowy Elizabethan spy?
 * More on the Authorship Debate:**

For four hundred years, doubts have been recorded about whether William Shakespeare actually wrote the works attributed to him. This website offers the chance to explore different arguments for the most prominent authorship candidates. Cases are presented for the following:[|Group Theory of Authorship,] [|Francis Bacon,] [|Edward de Vere,] [|Roger Manners,] [|Christopher Marlowe,] [|Henry Neville,] [|William Shakspere,] [|Mary Sidney Herbert,] [|and William Stanley.]
 * The Shakespearean Authorship Trust**

http://www.shakespeareanauthorshiptrust.org.uk/

http://www.shakespeareidentity.co.uk/index.html
 * Shakespearean Identity**

Some suspects: http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/ Founded in 1957, the Shakespeare Oxford Society is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to exploring the Shakespeare authorship question and researching the evidence that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604) is the true author of the poems and plays of “William Shakespeare.”
 * The Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere**

Was Shakespeare a woman? Gender issues. http://www.marysidneysociety.org/marysidney.html
 * Mary Sidney Herbert**

Kennedy Center: Discover Shakespeare** http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/shakespeare/# Click on site to launch an interactive page to investigate the life and legacy of Shakespeare There are videos located on the lower right hand side on such topics as: Early Life and Schooling Shakespeare's Early Years in London Modern Interpretations
 * III. Interactive Page (optional)

Recent Review of [|Hamlet] Read a bit more about the play we'll be reading.
 * IV. Miscellaneous Links**

[|Should Shakespeare be Barred?] The plays of Shakespeare don't need to be 'translated' they just need to be made relevant - and if theatre-makers can't do that, maybe it's time to give him a rest

[|Why Read Shakespeare's Biography?] Why do we read critical biographies of Shakespeare? The reasons that we shouldn’t have been ably given by his best critics. “Reader, looke / not on his Picture, but his Booke” was Ben Jonson’s advice right there at the start, on the title page of the First Folio, confronting the familiar Droeshout portrait of the unprepossessing bald guy with the ruff. The advice not to look at the life continues to this day. Artists, Auden insisted, should be anonymous;

Did Shakespeare Do Drugs? See [|CNN.] Or [|BBC.]

Mrs. Shakespeare: [|Reclaiming the Shrew.] Germaine Greer rebuts the derisive tales told of Mrs. Shakespeare. Antother review [|here]: Germaine Greer uses this fabulously argumentative book to challenge the male literary critics who have traditionally asserted that William Shakespeare was trapped in an unhappy marriage.

[|Looking at Shakespeare in Three Ways]

Each segment is aproximately one hour long. Recommended for the serious Shakespearean.
 * V. In Depth Documentary on Life and Times (optional)**

Part One: A Time of Revolution http://openflv.com/watch?v=MTQyMjc0&p=0

Part Two: The Lost Years http://openflv.com/watch?v=MTQyMjc0&p=1

Part Three: The Duty of Poets http://openflv.com/watch?v=MTQyMjc0&p=2

Part Four: For All Time [|http://openflv.com/watch?v=MTQyMjc0&p=3:29).1]