Though, Mr. Greenblatt spent time on a variety of issues dealing with Cultual Mobility in his lecture Wednesday night (Sept. 24), I will be writing mostly about his idea of creating Shakespeare texts for a new generation. When I was in High School this is all I could think about when learning Shakespeare, “Why can’t I understand this?” I remember thinking. Then we would watch a movie or a couple of movies to get the meaning and the brilliance of it all.
On the surface this seems like a brilliant idea because it may get every kid interested in Shakespeare, however, I feel that it takes a lot away from the work that Shakespeare put into his plays. It would be nice for kids to read both, I suppose, but when teachers add in the movies to watch and all that it almost becomes a seperate course. Many schools, in fact, have a seperate course and then are able to use all forms of media to get students to appreciate Shakespeare.
What about the kids who have no interest in signing up for a class like that, like me in High School? I thought Shakespeare was the lamest dude around, yet all these teachers loved him and I just didn’t get it. In fact, I didn’t get it until I took a British Literature course and learned the history of Shakespeare himself. Being able to learn about the man and not just the writing helped me realize how truly great his plays were. Using Iambic Pentameter throughout a massive play, making it “real” with not much rhyming, but still enough rhythm to make it read like poetry. These things took work and more than that they took a mind that could process all this information and make it work. Maybe I still didn’t enjoy his plays as much as everyone else, but at least now I appreciated them. Teachers need to get their students to appreciate an author and the material before the students can understand why it is being taught. So before we jump the gun and want to re-invent Shakespeare it is important to give him another shot, so we don’t water down his genius.
I think you make a great point in this entry. I also went to Greenblatt’s lecture and in my blog, only talked about the importance of finding ways for students to become interested in Shakespeare through different adaptations of his plays. I’ve always thought that the best way for students to connect to Shakespeare is to see that even though his works are difficult to read, they have messages and plot lines students can relate to, even in this day and age. I’ve never thought of them being able to connect to Shakespeare through actually learning about the man himself though, something I feel kind of silly about now after reading your blog. It makes absolute sense that to appreciate Shakespeare you need to know about his life. Shakespeare, and all authors for that matter, need to be seen by students as actual people who had real experiences and hardships just like the rest of us. They should understand how much work goes into creating a piece of literature. I think it’s great that you addressed this issue because when I become an English teacher I definitely plan on teaching Shakespeare and I know I’ll have trouble getting some of the students to enjoy it. Hopefully by teaching them about the author, if they don’t enjoy his plays or poems, at least they will appreciate them.
By: rakowick on October 21, 2008
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