Final Point 9: The End of All Things

To all:

We have at last come to the end of our semester and the end of this project.  We sincerely thank all who have contributed to this project in providing advice, feedback, and cookies.  All have helped immensely in shaping our ideas and process as we have worked on this edition.  It has been a lot of work, but at long last, we are pleased to present the final version of The Tempest.

"To the elements, Be free, and fare thou well!"  

Your faithful servants,
The Spear Shakers

Final Point 7: The New and Improved Tempest Edition

Hello again, from the Spear Shakers!  It's been a few weeks, but we've been hard at work making revisions and improvements to our edition, which you can see by clicking on this link.

Here are some things that are new:

• The Annotated Table of Contents (which includes hypothetical entries for the other acts that we will not actually be annotating for this project)
• Editor's Note
• The Final Note
• The Character List

Here are some things we've revised:

• We changed the format of our edition to better reflect how it would appear as a book in print.
• We further condensed, added a little bit of context in italics to, and created headings within the essay by Robert Pierce that we are using as our introduction.
• We changed the color coding of the annotations from coloring the words to using colored symbols.
• We reworked some of the activity questions at the end of Act III, Scene 1.

Here are some things that are still in the works:

• Finishing the annotations, line numbers, and text of Act III, Scene 2
• Make end of the scene activity questions for Act III, Scene 2
• Annotations, questions and such for Act III, Scene 3 
• Adding page numbers to the overall "book" and having corresponding page numbers in the Table of Contents.

And here are some things we're still thinking about:

• Adding a brief bio on Shakespeare and the time period he wrote in.
• Saying something about iambic pentameter and the way Shakespeare wrote.

Thanks from all of us for your input and review.  Happy reading!  

Final Point 5: The First Annotation

After a lot of work and a few laughs, the Spear Shakers are proud to present our first annotation of The Tempest.  We've made our annotation of  Act III, Scene 1.  Following this link will lead to a PDF format made available for your viewing pleasure.  We recognize that our particular scene is not a full 250 lines, but the entirety of Act III is well over that number.  When we selected Act III, we did it on the basis of what we thought would make a good sample of our edition would be and what high school students would be able to best connect to.     

What We've Done:

Our edition is for high school students who are experiencing their first exposure to Shakespeare.  Ideally, we would love to see The Tempest, specifically our edition, become the new Romeo and Juliet.  We felt as a group that there were a lot of situations and character aspects in The Tempest that high school students could relate to and engage with.

With that in mind, we have tried to include lot of critical thinking questions and supplementary activities that students and their teachers could use to build a deeper engagement with the text.  We want to help students think about what they're reading, and build relationships between themselves, the text, and the real world.

In addition, we want to use our addition to help introduce students to the idea of the critical conversation and literary discussion.  We want to introduce students to the many, many different ways that scholars can analyze a text.  For this reason, we included an abridged version of the essay "Understanding The Tempest" by Robert B. Pierce as an overall introduction to our edition.  We thought Pierce did an excellent job of talking about how scholars talk and think about literature, and we wanted our students to see what that discussion looks like as told by someone who participates in it firsthand.  To further help students explore the many ways of reading a piece of literature, we have assigned a different critical lens to each of the five acts of The Tempest.  In consideration of the plot points and dialogue that occur in Act III, we felt that having students consider themes of gender and sexuality would help facilitate meaningful discussion of the play.  As a means of introducing this critical lens to students, we introduce the act with a synthesis of gender and sexuality essays from scholars.  Presumably in the rest of our edition, each act would be introduced in a similar way with essays that relate to each of the different lenses we selected for the acts.

As we prepared the actual text, we tried to stay as true as possible to the Folio version.  We want students to be challenged a little in order for them to build new vocabulary and higher reading skills.  We recognize though, that Shakespeare can be tricky for a first time reader to understand, so we chose to include a brief scene summary before each scene to help students follow the general plot and action of the scene. In our margins, we gave definitions for more archaic or higher-level vocabulary words, and added clarifying translations and explanatory notes in our annotations as well in places we felt students might need additional help understanding the language or figures of speech that were more unusual.  We also included a few critical thinking questions in the margins in places where we wanted the students to stop and think more deeply about what they are reading.   

What We're Planning on Doing:

• Add an brief biography on Shakespeare either as an introductory note or as additional information at the end of the play
• Annotate the other two scenes of Act III in a similar manner to the work we've done on Scene 1, including post-scene activity questions for each and marginal critical thinking questions.
• Fine-tune definitions, questions, and essays throughout as needed
• Formalize the bibliography for the sources quoted and referenced  
• Integrate peer-reviews and feedback

What We're Thinking About Doing: 

• Add a further introduction to the critical conversation besides Robert Pierce's abridged essay
• Define a few words in the introduction, and maybe add an explanatory heading. E.g. In this edition of The Tempest, we talk a lot about “critical commentary,” or different, thoughtful ways of seeing the play. In this reading, Robert B. Pierce explains why it’s important to look at the play’s contents from different points of view. We hope getting the answer to that questions of “What’s the point to all this extra stuff?” will help you enjoy the play more and get more out of the “extra stuff.”
• Play with our formatting in regards to font and type-set
• Add some kind of post-play materials or list of resources, maybe even include the full versions of the essays we adapted and abridged for our edition.

Running List of Sources Cited or Referenced

*All definitions given were consulted with the Oxford English Dictionary

Graff, Gerald and James Phelan, ed. The Tempest. 2nd ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.

Lee, Michelle, ed. "The Tempest." Shakespearean Criticism. 124. (2009): 256-350. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. Loomba, Ania. “From Gender, race, Renaissance Drama.” The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. 2nd ed. Ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 389-401. Print.

Pierce, Robert B. “Understanding The Tempest.” New Literary History 30.2 (1999): 373-388. Project Muse. Web. 25 February 2014.

Slights, Jessica “Rape and the Romanticization of Shakespeare's Miranda.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 41.2 (2001): 357-379. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Thompson, Ann. “‘Miranda, Where’s Your Sister?”: Reading Shakespeare’s The Tempest”. The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. 2nd ed. Ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 402-412. Print.

Final Point 4: Critical Conversations and Secondary Scholarship

The Tempest, as with any literary piece, can be read through many different lenses and from many different perspectives.  There is no “right way” of interpreting the play, though there are probably some stronger interpretations than others that can be made.  One of our goals for our edition for high school students is to introduce them to various ways of looking at literature.  After researching scholarly input on the text, we Spear Shakers have consolidated our research into five common critical topics: magic and the fantastic, colonialism, power and politics, gender and sexuality, and the play as autobiography. We have assigned one of these topics to each of the five acts in the play, with our plan being to have the students focus on a different area of criticism for each act.  In this way, they are exposed to different ways of analyzing literature in an integrated and non-overwhelming way.  We purposefully assigned the critical topics to the acts we did in consideration of the plot of each act, and what could facilitate good classroom discussion.

In addition, we have materials for an introduction and afternotes.  The introduction, based off of an article by Robert B. Pierce, introduces the idea of how many different interpretations of the play can all be valid and build understanding, and that there is no right way of reading or not reading the play.  We felt that a short excerpt from his essay (which involves a marvelous polka-analogy) would be a good way to set the tone for our edition.  The materials we have listed in the afternotes section we felt were interesting and valid interpretations, but were not as major or easy to discuss with beginning Shakespeare scholars as the selections we did include.

The essays themselves within each act would be mainly for a teacher to consult in preparation to help guide the discussion in the classroom, but we may include short quotes from some of them for the students themselves to consider.  Since the large majority of our audience are beginning Shakespeareans, we do not want to overwhelm them with pages and pages of critical essays, so we plan not to go into too much detail for each area of criticism.  The main point is to help students be aware of the many kinds of discussions being had about literature.     

Introduction

Pierce, Robert B. “Understanding The Tempest.” New Literary History 30.2 (1999): 373-388. Project Muse. Web. 25 February 2014.  

Act I: Magic and the Fantastic

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “From Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet philosopher, and critic.” Oxford School 
Shakespeare: The Tempest. Ed. Roma Gill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 99-100. Print.

Coursen, H. R. The Tempest: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000. Print.

Bate, Jonathan. “Introduction.” William Shakespeare: The Tempest. Ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen.  New York: The Modern Library, 2008. vii-xx. Print. [specifically ix-xi.]

Johnson, Samuel. “From Dr Samuel Johnson: editor, critic, poet, and scholar.” Oxford School Shakespeare: The Tempest. Ed. Roma Gill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 98-99. Print.

Act 2: Colonialism

Maughan, Virginia Mason. Shakespeare in Performance: The Tempest. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011. 98-126. Print.

Taylor, David Francis.  “The Disenchanted Island: A Political History of The Tempest, 1760-1830.” Shakespeare Quarterly 63.4 (2012): 487-517.  Project Muse.  Web. 24 February 2014.  

Act 3: Gender and Sexuality

Hauger, Richard Lynn. "Shakespeare's "Full Realization" in "the Tempest": Maternal Absence and the Mystical Transcendence of Fratricidal Self-Fashioning through the 'Caritas' of Daughters." Order No. 1334092 The American University, 1988. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Pask, Kevin.  “Caliban’s Masque.” English Literary History 70.3 (2003): 739-756. Project Muse. Web. 24 2014.

Act 4: Politics and Power

Brower, Reuban A.  “The Mirror of Analogy.” The Tempest. Ed. Robert Langbaum. New York: Signet, 1964. 182-205. Print.

Elliot, N. J. (2004). “Prospero's return: An interpretation of The Tempest." ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Web. 24 February 2014.

Gish, Dustin A. “Taming the Tempest: Prospero's Love of Wisdom and the Turn from Tyranny." Souls with Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare. Ed. Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin A. Gish. Maryland: Lexington Books (2011). 231-260.  Web. 24 February 2014.

Zlatescu, Andrei Paul. "The Tempest as a Pretext: Shakespeare's Last Major Play and the New Allegories of Order." Order No. NR46459 University of Alberta (Canada), 2008. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Act 5: Autobiographical Evidences

Coursen, H.R. "Critical Approache." Trans. Array The Tempest: A Guide to the Play. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. 79-85. Print.

Davies, Anthony. “The Tempest.” The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 470-474. Print.

Lee, Michelle . "The Tempest." Shakespearean Criticism. 124. (2009): 256-350. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Phillips, James E. "The Tempest and the Renaissance Idea of Man." Shakespeare Quarterly. 15.2 (1964): 147-158. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Afternotes: More Ways of Reading the Play

Stage Production: 

Bate, Jonathan and Eric Rasmussen . The Tempest. New York: The Royal Shakespeare Company, 2008. Print.

Dymkowski, Christine ed. The Tempest.  Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.

Lindley, David ed. The Tempest. London: Thomson, 2003. Print.

Taymor, Julie. “Rough Magic.” Living With Shakespeare: Essays by Writers, Actors, and Directors. Ed. Susannah Carson. New York: Vintage Books, 2013. 466-482. Print.

Ecocriticism:

Brayton, Dan.  “Sounding the Deep: Shakespeare and the Sea Revisited.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 46.2 (2010): 189-206. Web. 25 February 2014.

Visual Sources:

Garfield, Leon. The Tempest. New York: Shakespeare Animated Films Limited, 1992. Print.

*A general note from the Spear Shakers at large...we tried to MLA format this as best we could, but Blogger hates indentations, so we made do with what we could. Also, if some of the sections are randomly a different shade of grey, we have absolutely no idea why.

Final Point 3: Our Play and Audience

After careful consideration and thought, we Spear Shakers are happy to announce that we will be annotating The Tempest for a high school audience.  This audience includes both the students and their heroic high school English teachers.

Why The Tempest and why high school?  Let us explain...

The Tempest:

• First and foremost, we chose The Tempest because it is not Romeo and Juliet.  Romeo and Juliet is typically the first Shakespeare play people interact with, and that interaction usually comes in the form of their freshman high school English class.  Our group's feeling is that R&J has become too cliche, too overdone, and is not the best example that beginning students could have of what a Shakespeare play is like.  We want to offer up The Tempest as a replacement for Romeo and Juliet, in the hopes that doing so will help more students appreciate and like Shakespeare in more meaningful ways.   
• The Tempest stands out even among the other Shakespeare plays.  It's one of the few plays of Shakespeare that has an original, non-recycled plot, and it doesn't quite neatly fit into the standard divisions of "tragedy, comedy, or history."  There is an intriguing level of different-ness in The Tempest  that makes it appealing.
• There are a lot of characters in the play.  There's the complex and powerful Prospero, the good-girl Miranda and the handsome-prince Ferdinand, Stephano and Trinculo the class-clowns, the plotting Sebastian and Antonio, the mysterious Ariel, and the outcast Caliban.  These are types of people and characters that high school students already understand to some extent from experiences with principals, jocks, school pranksters, "in-crowds," "out-crowds," and the likes.  There's good potential for students to be able to connect and understand the play in a meaningful way.    
• The Tempest invites the students to consider different social and political influences of Shakespeare's time and culture.

High Schoolers:

• High school students are immersed in pop culture and have experienced a lot of Shakespearean influences without realizing it. We hope to facilitate this by making students aware of and understand the influence Shakespeare has had not only in literature but in culture in general. 
• This gives us the opportunity to help mold and shift students views of Shakespeare as "old" and "boring" and see him relevant and as contributing to their world. 
• We hope to develop critical thinking and analytic skills by having students answer critical thinking questions and make predictions for character development based off of the initial introduction they are given.
• The students can build and follow different character developments and find connections and real life examples that follow similar patterns.
• They can explore how their views of the characters shift, what makes the villain "evil", what makes the protagonist "good," and questions about what being "good" or "evil" actually mean.  For example, "Is Prospero a good father, or an evil sorcerer?  Why?"  
• We hope to develop literary skills such by having students identify and practice literary devices such as blank verse, iambic pentameter, and other rhyme patterns. 
• High school students are fun.  They're strange, and sassy, and not afraid to tell you what they think, and we find that interesting.  There are a lot of different opinions that can be made and had about The Tempest, and we feel like there will be something in the play for a wide range of students and opinions.  

Final Point 2: Annotations

One of the things that sets various editions of apart from one another is the type of annotations each uses.  In considering the various editions of Shakespeare texts we are using in class, here are some of the thoughts we Spear Shakers had on the advantages and disadvantages of the different kinds of annotations, and how we might approach annotating our own edition.

Macbeth:

• Annotations:  
• A few footnotes along the bottom clarifying words or phrases
• Advantages:  
• Helps a general audience understand unfamiliar or archaic words
• Clarifies meaning so readers can follow the general flow of the plot   
• Disadvantages: 
• Annotations are very light, only providing very basic clarification
• Footnotes do not provide any sort of scholarly input or insight, are strictly for definitions  

The Tempest:

• Annotations: 
• Still relatively light, add clarification to words and some editorial commentary on scenes
• Advantages:
• Helps the audience understand the context of unfamiliar or archaic words
• Notes where editions differ in line assignment or cues.
•  Points out areas that are puns or have double meanings
• Disadvantages:
• A good edition for students, but possibly more information than a general user would be interested in.
• Scholarly, but not overly scholarly.  Good for an undergraduate, but not a Shakespeare scholar.  Does not add anything new to the conversation, only clarifies what is already known.
• Formatted in one large block...a little hard to read  

Richard III:

• Annotations:  
• Mostly consists of definitions for more archaic words and contexts, light annotations
• Advantages:
• Gives the audience context for unfamiliar or archaic words 
• Very cleanly presented and easy to find, follow, and read
• Disadvantages:
• Does not note puns or word plays, innuendos, or double-meanings
• Does not provide any additional commentary or context besides definitions

Measure for Measure:

• Annotations:
• Very similar in format and content as The Tempest
• Advantages:
• Helps the audience understand the context of unfamiliar or archaic words
• Notes where editions differ in line assignment or cues.
•  Points out areas that are puns or have double meanings
• Disadvantages
• Scholarly, but not overly scholarly.  Good for an undergraduate, but not a Shakespeare scholar.  Does not add anything new to the conversation, only clarifies what is already known.
• Formatted in one large block...a little hard to read  

As You Like It:

• Annotations:
• Extremely extensive--there are sometimes more annotations than text on the page
• Advantages:
• The annotations are extremely thorough, providing context, current research, differing opinions, historiography, definitions, and sources
• Everything in every annotation is cross-referenced and sourced so a reader knows exactly where every bit of information came from.
• If the reader has a question about anything in the text, chances are there will be an annotation for it.
• Disadvantages:
• Opening the edition to a random page and reading can be overwhelming for a reader new to annotations...where on earth do you begin?
• There is shorthand and abbreviations within the annotations a reader has to be aware of to be able to effectively "work the system" and effectively use the annotations
• Visually, the pages look very cluttered and text-dense

Because our audience will be high school teachers teaching high school students, we want to make it interesting for the students by providing the teachers with very interactive ideas to help their students engage with the text.  Here are some of the ideas we came up with for accompanying material from Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5.

• Give the Assignments/thinking questions to help students get more involved with the text. For example:
• Make a meme referring something happening in this scene.
• What sort of person does Lady Macbeth strike you as? Draw her and include characterization details and explain why those details were added (specific lines, your imagination, etc.)
• Write a 2-page essay on the importance of first impressions and how they affect the way you portray someone. Include how you see Lady Macbeth's character unfolding and predict things that will happen in regards to her and the role she plays in the plot of the play.
• Buddy up with someone else in the class and without discussing beforehand, write some of your first impressions you had of them. Then share those impressions with each other and talk about how they go with or against how you know that person now (or have the students pick someone they know who at first didn't seem all that great but who then surprised them later on in their interactions/friendship/relationship).
• Based on what we have read so far, can you think of any modern version of Lady Macbeth? Characters from other books or movies? Perhaps T.V shows you have seen?

• Include a poetry terms glossary somewhere in the book which will explain terms such as 'prose' and 'iambic pentameter.'
• Have an activity for them to write their own poem in iambic pentameter or their own prose using a related topic such as: what Lady Macbeth is like, what their friends are like, what they would do for power, how they would respond in Lady Macbeth's position of receiving word that her husband inherited more land, etc.
• Using the text provided, write a modern version of the text. Follow the structure and outline given by Shakespeare while adding modern twists on language and word play.

• Add vocabulary footnotes to define difficult words.
• Not too many though, because that can be distracting to students. 
• Include an activity of them writing their own poem or short story using a certain number of the vocabulary--easily incorporated into defining prose and iambic pentameter.

• Add poetry footnotes to point out poetic shifts, e.g. prose (our link includes one such footnote) and departure from the iambic norm.
• Have discussion questions in response to the differences in iambic pentameter, giving students the opportunity to interpret those differences and the meanings behind it.

• If we have an online or "app" version of the text as we've toyed with, add the ability for students to comment on the scene. Here's some inspiration for that idea.
• There could be a possible link for the teacher to send out by making their own blog/commentary area for that specific class so they can all contribute to the conversation (memes would be posted here attached to certain lines they responded to, videos they make with peers, etc.)
• Include a few peer reviewed essays the invite the students to think of the bigger picture. 
• Be careful to select essays that do not engage in a conversation that is too deep for the students but encourage them to think of different things Shakespeare may have been trying to say. (i.e gender)

Final Point 1: Disparate Editions of Shakespeare

Hello, fellow Spear Shakers!  Welcome to the first post of the blog about all things relating to spears, shaking, and of course, the master spear shaker himself, William Shakespeare.  After talking and reviewing the editions of the five plays we are reading this semester, we've come up with a break-down of the intended audience for each edition, and some of the ways that the editors of each edition used to connect with their audience.  We've listed the plays in what we felt reflected a scale from "General Readership" to "Highly Academic."  Happy reading!  Let us know in the comments what you think about the editions.  

Macbeth

• Audiences: 
• "students, teachers, and theater professionals" (as quoted from the back cover)
• Tactics:
• Price it cheaply, use cheap paper, keep it relatively thin
• Directly state their audience on the back cover
• Make it part of an established Shakespeare series: increases ethos
• Updated the spelling and clarify many words or phrases in footnotes
• Contains meaty essays on "The Theatrical World," the texts, and the contents of the play itself which are not as long or in-depth as those in the Arden edition of AYL.

The Tempest

• Audiences:  
• The audience for the Graff-Phelan edition of The Tempest seems to be somewhere between the more "for the people" Orgel edition of Macbeth we've looked at and the "for people who eat-live-breathe As You Like It" Dusinberre edition.  The audience is definitely still academic, but it feels more like a "general use" type of academic audience.
• Tactics: 
• The editors, Gerald Graff and James Phelan are known for producing critical editions of a variety of literary texts, not just Shakespeare plays.
• The introductory material is far less detailed and play-specific than the material for As You Like It, focusing more on Shakespeare as a person and his plays in general, not just on The Tempest (in fact, The Tempest is only mentioned by name about half a dozen times).
• On page nine of the introduction, the editors state that the most important question to consider for this edition and reading of the text is "Was [Shakespeare] a man of the middle class with aspirations toward gentility or an aristocrat?"
• The supplementary materials in the post-text address questions about The Tempest, but in contexts that apply more readily to the broader literary conversation, such as colonialism and feminism.  
• There is a preface to the scholarly articles entitled "Why Study Critical Controversies about The Tempest." The editors take the time to explain why there is literary debate and why it matters for students who may be new to literary studies, versus Dusinberre, who assumes the reader is already well-versed and participating in the literary debate.  

Richard III

• Audiences: 
• The audience that this edition of Richard III is aiming at seems to be those interested in joining the conversations already going on about Shakespeare, specifically Richard III. That being said, the audience would likely include scholars, researchers, and the occasional college student. Much of the Preface alone talks about different editions, adaptations, and interpretations of Richard III that are later mentioned in the "Contexts" portion of the edition we are using. Also, in the back of the book, there are various critical essays written about a variety of aspects of the play.
• Tactics: 
• The editors connect with their audience simply by consolidating a variety of essays, critiques, and various other options of adaptations of Richard III in one place.
• The academic conversations that the reader would want to be aware of and join are already there and ready to go. Or even as an inspiration for starting a new conversation.

Measure for Measure

• Audiences:
• Students studying and approaching Shakespeare through a variety of different ways, particularly those who are concerned with the history of the culture during the time the play was written
• Tactics:
• Provides headnotes and a glossary for all supplementary material to help the reader better understand the context of materials.
• Provides a variety of supplementary material that would likely draw the attention of students with differing interests. 
• Includes proclamations, court records, sermons, and much more

As You Like It

• Audiences: 
• Shakespeare scholars, other scholars, theater professionals (particularly those interested in re-creating historical performances of the play), professors and their students
• Tactics:
• Overall quality: edition thickness, white paper (as opposed to the grey-looking, recycled paper in the Macbeth edition), clean design
• Extremely in-depth essays to connect with and participate in many, many critical conversations about the play and its history
• Many, many footnotes to help the reader catch all the nuances this experienced editor sees; even Shakespeare scholars should be able to find new things, or be reminded of things they've forgotten.

For our own edition, our group is interested in the up-and-coming generation of students and their relationship and interactions with Shakespeare.  In other words, teenagers who only know that Shakespeare wrote stuff and is now dead. Why? Because teenagers are interestingly awkward, and we want to show them that there are (in our somewhat bitter opinion) bigger and better things about Shakespeare than Romeo and Juliet.