I think my paper is also more informative that pragmatic. I've noticed that a lot of students in this class are doing a very good job of writing papers about ways of teaching Shakespeare and media adaptations of his plays. The ideas in their papers can be put to practical use. I honestly have no idea what to do with mine. I based my paper on the notion that people have lately wanted to hear all sides of the "Mormon story," and I was just writing my own version. People like to learn about the topic, but what can we actually DO to relate to it?
Professor Burton and I talked a little bit about the idea of "hacking"--the idea that if a certain group is not able to get what they need in a conventional way, they will resort to unconventional means to get the job done. We discussed the new practice of getting loans from other people, rather than from banks, in order to avoid having to pay buckets of money in interest. Mormons "hacked" the system in Kirtland by establishing a bank without a formal charter; the Jews in Merchant of Venice "hacked" in a way by finding a trade in which they could be successful in a way that Christians were forbidden by the rules of their religion to do.
Obviously this idea of hacking exists and can exist in many ways and places, so I was thinking I could expand on something like that. However, I don't know exactly how to transition to that from where my paper is now. How do I keep this within the bounds of Shakespeare? Please let me know if you have any ideas.
I think you could actually expand this to a larger set of communities and connect the misconceptions of the Jews in "Merchant of Venice" along with Mormonism to a broader audience. There are many misconceptions made in a variety of areas. Everyone has a stereotype and what I seem to see with your paper is an attempt to break away from those stereotypes and prove that there is a great foundation and great learning opportunities available in Shakespeare, Mormonism, and other struggling groups like people who feel marginalized by society. There are so many options. Maybe creating a digital community board with different topics of discussion where people can connect and interact and grow through meeting different people who share similar feelings, etc. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteSo I think that many of us really moved away from Shakespeare in our topic and struggled to connect it back to Shakespeare. What I did in my paper is explain a certain situation or relationship presented in my Shakespeare play (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and then related/ compared it to a similar situation or relationship in the modern world.
ReplyDeleteI presented another direction you could take your paper in my blog: http://tovaralicia382.blogspot.com/2012/03/rachel-o-foolish-wit-paper.html
I think that you could always talk about the current situation with media and bullying then compare it to what Shylock had to go through. You could also speculate about how Shylock might react if he was put in a similar situation.