During the past few weeks, we have almost exclusively devoted our class time and homework to Shakespeare's Hamlet, whether by reading the text as a group, discussing it, taking practice tests over it, or writing forums about related materials. While we usually have other activities in addition to the major book we are reading, I think it has been good to focus primarily on Hamlet because it is by far the most difficult literature we have covered this year. The archaic diction is dense on its own, but even understanding the plot requires considerable effort. Hamlet is probably one of the most written-about works in the English language due to its deep psychological insight and discussion of human nature which has opened criticism and analysis of all kinds from the Elizabethan era to the present day.
As part of our own analysis, we responded to three sources in an online forum. The first was an audio about convicts learning and performing Hamlet in a high-security prison. This was especially thought-provoking because of the emotional ties some of the prisoners formed with the characters and each other through the process. The second was an account of an American woman trying to explain Hamlet to tribal members of the Tiv in West Africa. While intriguing, I found the style mildly condescending towards the tribe members and had a difficult time seeing the great revelation about Hamlet's universality she claimed to be writing about. The third was a poem by Rimbaud meditating on Ophelia's death and her connection to nature. Out of the three, this was the most helpful for developing some thoughts of my own on her behavior in the play.
Aside from Hamlet, we also completed a forum post about the literature from first semester. I ended up connecting themes in Ceremony to Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese," but other posts were regarding the other books we covered.
In class this week, we will be watching a version of Hamlet and annotating on our own. I think this will help to improve the quality of our next discussion.
Hey Thomas,
ReplyDeleteYeah, we have been spending a LOT of time on Hamlet recently. So many people struggle with Elizabethan English, but for me it is not so difficult as to detract from the pleasure of reading it.
Hamlet's place in history is very unique because it was first published months before Elizabeth I died, making it one of the last famous Elizabethan plays, and really shows an interesting transition state.
With the forum posts, I found them interesting albeit, not that useful to me. You said that you found the poetry the most useful, if I may ask why?
Great job (again)!
Hey Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI really like how your response is not only very detailed and objective, but subjective as well. It really shows that you’ve been paying attention to everything that we’ve been talking about in class and that you’re trying to understand it all to the best of your abilities. I also like how you’re still specifically incorporating items that we covered since the beginning of the year (like DIDLS analysis). Although you focused a lot on Hamlet in this post, how do you feel about all of the new vocab and the new sets of multiple choice problems that we have to get accustomed to by May? And what are your thoughts on the three different Hamlet movie adaptations that we've seen so far? As usual, nice job with your post!