"Pray, speak in English: here are some will thank you" -- Queen Katharine, Henry VIII
How does one approach reading and studying Shakespeare?
How can it be engaging, enjoyable, and stimulating?
How can one keep oneself from being bored or intimidated by all that Elizabethan lingo and fancy talk?
How can one be as happy as the kid in this picture when cracking open Hamlet or Much Ado?
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| flickr: melvinrobertw |
- Map the Territory
Reading a Shakespeare text cold is not smart. There are so many resources -- summaries, notes, editions for beginners, online guides, introductions, etc. -- that it really pays to get a map of the territory before entering it. At the very least, read a plot summary so you won't be guessing about events. And while I caution you against over-preparing (one can easily get lost in all of the secondary texts and forget the primary one), it's good to glance over the dramatis personae (the list of characters), and any introductory material in one's text. If you have an hour to spend reading Shakespeare, spend the first 10 minutes with introductory materials and previewing. - Watch a Video Preview
We're fortunate that so many performances and film adaptations of Shakespeare are so readily available to us through online resources. Watching some clips of key scenes can be helpful, though I also caution you against getting lost in the world of video clips. Your experience of a play can be enhanced by hearing and viewing good productions. But you might be tempted simply to watch the play rather than read it. Or, you might end up watching an inferior production (of which there are many), or get distracted by silly stuff that's always just a click away. So if you are going to preview the text by watching a video, consult a reliable source to find out the best productions (there is a list in one of the appendices in David Bevington's The Necessary Shakespeare), and don't let watching a film version (especially one chopped up into segments) substitute for actually reading the text. At this stage of the game, keep your video preview brief. If you have an hour to study Shakespeare, your time mapping the territory and watching a video preview together should not take more than a quarter of that time. - Follow Good Reading Practices
- Treat Shakespeare as a foreign language. This means don't get hung up on every expression that's not clear. Only check footnotes a couple or three times per page (or you will chop up the flow too much). Let things drop as you try to figure out what the main events and themes are for the segment you are reading.
- Read aloud. It's more fun, many of the expressions will make sense to your ears that might not to "the mind's eye," and this can help make your experience more social (see below).
- Read together. Get a classmate, roommate, or friend to read with you and turn it into a little readers' theater experience. This might not be practical all the time, but try it out a bit and you'll see how suddenly the reading experience becomes more fun.
- Imagine a Performance. Think of a scenario (in both place and time) and create a production in your head. Imagine friends, family, or actors playing the roles. Try to imagine the voices of those people as you read the different parts.
- Listen to an audio version. Many audio versions are widely available at libraries. I have a subscription to Audible and have enjoyed listening to the famous John Gielgud's performance of Hamlet. Audio versions can help students of the text because we are less distracted by all the visuals and can really focus on the delivery of the language while still enjoying a dramatized version. Oh, and there are free online audio versions to be found of some plays, such as those at LibriVox or Project Gutenberg.
- Take notes as you read or listen. It will help you stay more engaged with the text. I suggest you take notes while keeping in mind your goal of sharing your learning with others. Ask questions of the text that you might ask of others, or make the subject of a blog post.
- Watch an Adaptation. Just don't use this as a substitute for reading the text. Sometimes it's helpful to follow along in the text while viewing a film adaptation.
- Act it Out. This is going to be one that many of you are too shy to try, but it takes reading aloud a notch up. Get off your feet, hold the text in your hand and I gesture, walk, battle -- whatever. Hopefully you are doing this with others who can help you laugh about it all. Of course you can't do this every time, but a theatrical text really does deserve to be experienced dramatically, and the kinesthetic mode of learning really works.
- Engage the Text Creatively.
Sketch a character, draw a set or setting, make your own audio version of the text, go crazy and make a video version, make a painting, imitate a famous passage by recasting it into your own words, write a prequel or sequel, adapt a scene for a children's audience, memorize a passage or speech, put a passage or song to music. Interpretive dance. Cooking. Origami. Finger painting. Puppetry. Lip sync. Whatever. Obviously you can't spend hours on this sort of thing or you'd never get through any of the original texts. But you should do some of this periodically. It helps you make that text yours, and it will help you in making your learning more social as you share your creativity with others. If you want to see some of my creativity with Shakespeare, check out my sonnets blog where I often imitate Shakespeare's sonnets with my own. - See What Others Say. This can also happen as part of previewing a text, or as preparation for sharing your learning and insights. This can involve looking up blogs where people discuss the play you are reading (use Technorati, Icerocket, or Google Blog Search to search blogs). It could involve searching social bookmarking sites (like delicious or Diigo). It could mean checking on real-time discussions about the play or production that people are discussing (using a Twitter search for example). It could mean checking what friends or strangers have said about their readings of this text on a social book site like Goodreads or LibraryThing -- or on Amazon book reviews. And of course, one can see what scholars have said through a host of bibliographies, online databases, etc. More on scholarly resources later. (My suggestion above (about acting it out) came from me doing some quick searches about how to read Shakespeare. I found an About.com guide that provided that helpful suggestion, and it immediately made sense to me.)
- Share Your Learning. This is a critical part of the new literacy. Since it is so easy to connect with others by sharing what you are doing, this brings a potential social dimension to the experience of literature that has not always been available. If you've been following some of the socially oriented suggestions above (like reading aloud or checking out what others are saying about the text you are reading), then it will be a natural and fun thing to reach out and express your opinion, share that link, etc. If you are blogging, make sure that you are not blogging a monologue. Try to find a way to bridge the interests of others (as you read their opinions and experience their media) with your own. You can certainly share your learning without doing so online -- with friends, roommates, people you speak with at church -- but some of your sharing should be through the many electronic means now available. Every time you post to your blog, you should post an update on Twitter or on Facebook so your circle of friends sees what you are doing. And if you are producing creative work, this makes it all the more interesting for your friends to follow your learning.
What have I left out? What are your suggestions for making the reading of Shakespeare interesting? I'd love to hear examples and alternatives from you.
