Hello All, we now begin our Shakespeare Blogs for 2017. We have had a wonderful launch into a Shakespearean autumn with Bell Shakespeare’s  Richard III awaiting us on Wednesday 15th March. As a preamble to that we have explored the context of the European Renaissance and 16th Century England. What a time that was with the fears of the plague and political intrigue hovering over people’s lives. Were their times any more fraught than our own? An interesting question. Kate Mulvany as Richard III will bring a totally new perspective into audience’s reactions to Richard III. As the recent discovery of Richard III remains in a carpark in Leicester provoked, there are still unanswered questions: was he an outright villain, or were there any redeeming aspects to his experience as a human being born with some very compromising defects: 

Blog Topics begin this week. Here is a selection to chose from. Enjoy the process.

 

Shakespeare Blog Topics Week 3 – DUE Friday 17^th March 2017

 

These Blog Topics will be posted weekly at https://michaelgriffith1.com

 

Please study carefully the Appendices at the end of the Unit Outline which gives you more details about this task. Most important is that you try to maintain a mix of Creative and Critical entries. Remember also that you are permitted to create a topic of your own.

Try to keep blog length between 250 and 350 words. There is no maximum length. Try also to incorporate some visual components in your blog, but be sure to acknowledge the source of your visual (if it is not your own photograph). Remember the theme for the final ePortfolio which should underpin your blogs as a whole:

While people in the English Renaissance wore different clothes and had no access to digital technology, their artistic expressions and the experiences these embody still have an impact on human beings living in the 21^st Century.

Remember also that you are required to write a short peer review each week (starting in week 4) of someone else in the unit.

Be constructive, creative and critical in your response and be sure to copy and paste your comment (with your peer’s URL) into your own Blog as a new entry.

For further help on how to use WordPress go to http://lynda.acu.edu.au/

And look for the film entitled “WordPress.com Essential Training” with Carrie Dils.

 

CHOSE ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS FOR YOUR FIRST BLOG

 

CREATIVE

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York.

Continue this line of thought either in a short poem or a paragraph of prose. The subject does not have to be directly related to Richard III.

 

CRITICAL

What kind of character is presented to us in the opening speech of Richard III? Pick out a few words and phrases that identify the kind of man that he is.

 

CREATIVE

From the opening weeks of your introduction to Shakespeare and the Renaissance what events or ideas have excited or surprised your imagination most? Write a short paragraph that gives voice to your experience of this period.

 

CRITICAL

How does the language of Lady Anne’s speech in Act 1 Scene 2 of Richard III present the consciousness of a woman as distinct from that of a man. What words or phrases enable Shakespeare to suggest this difference?

 

CREATIVE

Clarence has just been told that he is going to be taken to the Tower of London (Act 1 Sc 1 line 43). Write a short speech of some 10 lines telling Richard what you really think about this.

 

CRITICAL

Create a digital mini-kit that produces some of the best resources for a study of the Bell Shakespeare version of Richard III.

 

CREATIVE

Imagine yourself as a deformed Richard III. Write a short paragraph that expresses your sense of anger with the way your life has been shaped.

 

CRITICAL

Compare a series of reviews of Richard III produced in the last 10 years and explore whether there have been significant differences in the way Richard has been presented.

 

CREATIVE

You are an archeologist and you are one of the first to have discovered Richard III’s skeleton under a car park in England. Write a newspaper article that expresses something of the significance of this find.

 

CRITICAL/CREATIVE

Describe in as much detail as you can the picture of Elizabeth 1^st in Procession that is attributed to Robert Peake, ca 1600 (in Norton C6)

CREATIVE/CRITICAL

Create a topic of your own based around any of the readings or ideas that have been presented in the opening weeks of this unit.