Class Notes January 27, 2011

• Ran
• movie
• King Lear
• version of it
• The Bottom Translation
• Prepubestescent boys often played women
• may have been called
• Murial Rukeyser
• Ted Hughes "stole" from her
• The Traces of Thomas Harriot
• Act IV.2.81
• 2nd part of Henry the 6th
• "kill lawyers...kill all the books.." English teachers are the first to die
• Sonnets
• Breeding Sonnets
• encourages a young man to marry and have children
• commissioned by the man's parents
• by putting someone in a piece of work that person become immortal
• stops talking about babies in Sonnet 15 and focuses on immortality
• MIND BABIES
• make us immortal
• Mid Summer's Night Dream
• Does it have anything to do with myth?
• based on Greek myth
• names
• Theseus &  Hippolyta
• Think of Shakespeare's plays as jig saw puzzles
• they all go together somehow
• every play is a version of every other play
• Tempest
• everybody is an anagram of everyone else
• Outskirts
• wood
• get into trouble
• trouble, insanity, lunacy
• Tempest
• punishment had to carry wood
• wooed
• "was woman in this manner ever wooed?"
• uses three times in different plays
• Titus & Adonis
• Richard the 3rd
• myth
• darkness lurking but not given by Shakespeare
• keeps it out of the context and allows the audience to distinguish between the play and myth
• Joseph
• Theseus & Apallatus myth
• accuses step-son of rape
• mythical background of a Mid Summer's Night Dream
• Levels of myth in a Mid Summer's Night Dream
• People of wood governed by the moon levels 1 & 2
• 1
• Titania & Oberon
• primary level
• 2
• Puck & fairies
• 1b
• folk mythology
• Realistic levels 3,4,&5
• 3
• Theseus & Hippolyta
• 4
• 4 lovers
• Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena
• 5
• Rude Mechanicals
• Page 260
• line 141-149
• impressive speech for Lysander
• similar to Juliet

Class Notes January 25, 2011

• Everyone needs to start choosing secondary works
• Metempsychosis
• neo-platinism
• cabala
• Shakespeare knew about these branches; evident in his work
• Shakespeare doesn't say anything
• his characters say things
• all of them & none of them
• Mid Summer's Night Dream
• Presentations February 3rd
• 10 minutes
• Why is Act V included?
• Shakespeare our Contemporary
• Jan Kott
• Masque
• Tempest
• Good example
• King Lear
• 3 editions
• Venus & Adonis
• misplaced myth
• Mesopotamia
• Annu visits sister in underworld
• Demus lover for Anana
• reverse of Hades & Persephone
• Persephone
• becomes a boar
• consuming myth
• split personality
• sisters
• different sides of herself
• Persephone & Venus
• Golden Ass
• Apuleius
• read
• talks about Isis
• Nick's blog
• Manly P. Hall
• Ted Hughes
• Shakespeare & the Goddess of Complete Being
• Catholics & Protestants
• warring like Venus & Adonis
• Rejection of Goddess
• Ishtar
• celebration Easter
• Read blogs
• Intimidation is Good!
• Jon Orsi
• Jeff
• Jami
• Craig
• Matt
• Painting of Tarquin
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
• movie
• should watch
• retelling of Hamlet from different perspective
• The Secret Teachings of All Ages
• Hall
• Tarquin
• Shakespeare's ultimate villain
• rapist
• killer
• realistic version of the boar
• commit atrocious act
• Shakespeare's Pierced Hero
• Macbeth
• Jennifer's sons picture
• St. Sebastian image
• Icuro
• II Samura
• Throne of Blood
• Youtube
• Great version of Macbeth
• 43 seconds
• Macbeth
• page 1627
• referencing Bible
• John Chap 16
• knows about Judas' betrayal: do it
• quickly
• "And pity..." line 21
• Venus & Adonis
• Ashley's blog
• Passiphae
• Greek Goddess
• Venus & Adonis/ Rape of Lucere
• only superficially about rape
• guy wrong in both poems
• rejected unconditional love
• role of enraged boar
• Shakespeare=feminist
• Adonis
• model of Puritan
• rejects unconditional love
• Actaeon
• Gazing upon the Goddess
• 12th Night
• Goddess of Dianna
• Satyr-became
• hunter becomes the hunted
• consuming myth of Shakespeare
• does not have maturity needed to look upon the Goddess

Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa-yit

Like most everyone else in the class, I am starting to feel the pressure and intimidation of reading my classmates' spectularly insightful blogs. This past evening, I have read various blogs and have often had to pause in my perusal and Google some reference or another just to follow along with the rest of the blog, especially when reading Nick's blog.
To try and negate this pressure that I have been feeling, I decided to step back from the readings and examine how I have been thinking about the blogs, the works of Shakespeare that I have read so far, and then what I feel about Shakespeare itself.
When reading the blogs besides for intimidation, I often feel a sort of recognition when my classmates mention other mythological stories that Shakespeare has brought to mind for them. I read some of these stories in Mythologies over three years ago so it is like a bittersweet memory to try and recall these stories. Sam's blog was especially helpful in this aspect. He started referencing a Japenese myth which made me recall a Native American myth, about Raven. I am not particularly sure what brought this story to mind except for the image that Sam had on his page. Lucky for me I still have my Mythology book and was able to look up the finite details that had escaped my memory as I have not yet gotten it as honed as Dr. Sexson's! The quick overview of this myth for those of you who are not familiar with it is that by changing his shape, Raven was able to steal the stars, moon, sun, and water to give to the poor ignorant humans. Raven is considered to be one of the Tricksters of mythology.

While reaquainting myself with Raven, I started to ponder the similarities between Raven and Shakespeare. We discussed in class on Tuesday and Roberto does in his blog as well, about how no one truly knows what Shakespeare looked like giving us the abiltiy to alter his form to fit the type of literature that we are reading of his. Raven altered his form to be able to steal the stars, moon, and sun. Now I am not saying that Shakespeare stole his work but it is indisputable that he did use members of the School of Night for inspiration and often characterized them or words that they had spoken. He used these characters to teach us mere normal mortals various lessons and morals and gave us our language as Raven was able to give humans the means to survive. In some stories, Raven even taught humans morals often similiar to morals that may be found in Shakespearean works if approached from the right perspective. The last similarity that I would like to point out between Shakespeare and Raven is that they are both tricksters. Raven's trickery is obvious in how he aquires his gifts to give to the humans. Shakespeare's trickery is evident in how he presents his gifts to us. Like Dr. Sexson said in class, it is often impossible to say where Shakespeare himself stood on a certain issue because we never learn what he actually says just what his characters say. In that way he tricks us because of the the millions of people who have studied him and his work, we will never truly know what he looks like nor who he truly was.

Just to make things more visually pleasing, here is a more diagramed version of what I have been trying to say, whether I have succeeded remains to be seen.

1. Trickster
1. Raven
1. stole the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and Water to give to humans
2. Shakespeare
1. stole/borrowed ideas, words, mannerisms, and etc... from members of the School of Night that helped make his works as great as they are
2. His trickery is also evident in how he never allows the reader to truly know what he thinks as a person. He only allows us to know what his characters think or feel and that changes with every single one of his pieces of literature.
2. Ability to Change
1. Raven
1. Was able to change his physcial shape to be able to steal the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
2. Shakespeare
1. As we have no true idea of his identity Shakespeare is able to change within our minds and be fluid entity of what each of us individually feels that the great icon of literature should be.
3. Morals
1. Both of these two tricksters gave others morals that had a great impact on humans for the rest of the human existence (as I am guessing that Shakespeare will be taught in schools for forever)
4. Both have been mythologized
1. Shakespeare's work obviously has mythological influences but we as readers have mythologized his work and made him a god of literature as well. This blog for example has pointed out the similarities of Shakespeare and mythologized him into a Trickster god. I am guessing that Shakespeare has been mythologized with almost every type of god that societies have created.

One other aspect that has been talked about in class is that everything somehow relates to another thing. I think that this is inevitable given human nature and that all literature or art is somehow drawn from the same well so to speak. All literature has been influenced by some other piece of literature which in turn was influenced by something else and so on and so on until everything is connected. I also believe that if a person looks hard enough they will always be able to find a connection between two things even if it is just to find the connection of how they are different. One must know what something is not to know what it is.

In the past few days, I have started reading the play that my group was assigned King Henry IV Part 1. Like all Shakespeare's plays, at least for me, it is hard to get into reading it but after a few pages I get on a roll. About when I was just starting to be able to see the actors in my head saying the lines, I came across the Prince's rhapsody, which we talked about in class last week. I think that some would argue that the Prince's speech on lines 188-210 is not a rhapsody but it struck me as visionary that someone would be so in-tune with the nuances of politics and human nature to understand that by acting as a jerkish Prince now would make him even better later as King. The introduction to the play had mentioned this passage by saying that it is argued by critics if the Prince was sincere in his speech at this point or not. But I have to say how can anyone not take him seriously. I would not think that it is possible for someone to be so inconsistent as to be able to think of these words and not mean them. I use inconsistent here because I recently read part of a work by Aristotle, which said that "[the character should be] consistent. If the model for the representation is somebody inconsistent, and such a character is intended, even so it should be consistently inconsistent". I am no where near done with the play but thus far the Prince's character has been consistent with the idea that he is trying to behave in a manner that is consistent in the way that he tries to be a jerk but often does the responsible thing while making it seem like the wrong thing to do. Specifically one passage that he clearly states his intentions and illuminates why he had acted as he had earlier is
"Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
 Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
 To smother up his beauty from the world,
 That, when he please again to be himself
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapors that did seem to strangle him.
I feel that this is apt because at an earlier scene when trying to dissuade his comrades from a foolhardy escaped, the Prince seems to be strangled by his conflicting desires to appear the fancy-free youth and the responsible heir. I look forward to learning over the next few weeks, if the Prince does end up strangled by his conflicting desires and if anyone else felt that this one passage will be one of the cornerstones of the play's themes.

Class Notes January 20, 2011

• Wallace Stevens
• Postcard from the Volcanos
• Shakespeare's effect
• "what we said of it became a part of what it is"
• continuation without knowledge of foreknowledge
• Bloom's book: helps us understand
• Love's Labor Lost
• page 233 lin 250-252
• School of Night referenced
• Everyone is to try writing a sonnet
• 14 line Shakespearean version
• within the next 10-14 days
• Use Spencer's Blog as an example
• http://spencerstilwell473.blogspot.com/2011/01/prexperience.html
• Rapsody
• Every word has visionary intensity
• Love's Labor Lost
• line 29.1-338 might be motto of school of night
• true academic is reading love in a woman's eyes not reading textbooks/books
• Idea of the boar
• Venus & Adonis
• Rape of Lucere
• the two plays balance Shakespeare
• Giordan Buno
• memory techniques
• possible member of School of Night
• hermetic philosophy
• divine love referred above all
• Check out Shelby's blog
• http://shelbysouleshakespeare.blogspot.com/2011/01/weights-and-levers.html
• Check out Roberto's blog
• http://cattaneostudiesshakespeare.blogspot.com/
• both show the power of the mind
• reference School of Night and the scales
• Manly Hall
• secret societies
• Frances Yates
• Art of Memory
• Mystical work of Hymeticism
• Bruno's Speech in Love Labor's Lost is almost identical
• Anthony Keatis
• Matt's Blog
• Scar Tissue
• Mishima
• http://shakespearebloglit47.blogspot.com/
• Ted Hughes
• Court Lord of England
• wrote Shakespeare & the Goddess
• "Poets tend to be obsessed with the consuming myth"
• Consuming Myth
• Fiathon
• Sylvia Plath
• Peter Broto: Fall of Icarus
• St. Sebastian
• T.S. Elliot's consuming myth
• Shakespeare
• Venus & Adonis
• Michelangelo
• Piate
• What is everyone's scared text with canonical authority?
• Borges
• Everything & Nothing
• http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/borges.htm
• Everyone NEEDS to read!
• Genius of Shakespeare
• Jame's Blog
• http://killingtheplayfullking.blogspot.com/
• John Keats
• Negative Capability
• empty out personality to become a great artist
• Passages discussed in class
• Macbeth
• Act 1 Scene 7 Line 21
• "Pity like a naked newborn babe"

Class Notes January 18, 2011

Must Knows to be a Literature Major

1. Bible
1. No one can completely know the Bible but everyone should have a general idea of it as it is the cornerstone for so much of the world's literature/culture
2. Shakespeare
1. He is responsible for much of our language
3. Classical Greek Mythology
1.  Ovid & Greek Dramas
4. Everything else
1. secular scripture (all literature that is not the Bible)

• Bible
• Anxiety of influence: the Bible often creates this for writers
• Everyone must read it even if they do not like it as affects so much of our culture
• School of Night
• all of the men were very science minded
• psudo-sciences: tarrot cards, neoplatinion, Kabala, Hermetic mysteries
• all reintroduced by the School of Night
• Spencer's Sonnet
• everyone should read it as we will all be assigned to write a sonnet
• Professor Sexson talked about texts that are our own personal bibles
• Antony & Cleopatra
• page 1696 line 84
• Cleopatra's histrionics
• "If going to use language use it to the hilt" Professor Sexson
• myth means story
• Midsummer's Night Dream
• levels of myth
• occult ladder: low to high
• right vision: bottom is top & top is bottom
• God/Goddess, fairies/demons/lower Gods, Duke/Duchess, Working class (rude mechanicals)
• Ted Hughes
• page 85
• Puritan=bad literature
• complex literature is better because it involves mythology
• Shakespeare's Alls well that ends well
• strips mythology of Venus & Adonis
• one of his least popular plays
• Interiorized myth
• Shakespeare uses this which makes him a great author

Syllabus

English 473: Shakespeare   Spring 2011  2:10-3:25 TTh  ATM 222

Instructor: Michael Sexson  Office: 2-183 Willson Hours: 10-12: 1-2 Tu Thurs. Or by appointment.

Texts: The Pelican Shakespeare (ed. Orgel) 

The School of Night, online essay by Frederick Turner  http://frederickturnerpoet.com/?page_id=145

                                                 "Shakespeare: Mything the Point"

"The microcosm can not only reflect, but control, the macrocosm. With correct mnemonic technology, the whole universe can be stored in one man's memory: here the levers are the commonplaces, the topoi of the memory theatre system of recall. Modern science tells us that the information storage capacity of the human brain is many orders of magnitude greater than the amount of information in the physical universe, so the idea is in principle quite sound." Turner, School of Night, 59-60.

In the service of seeking how the macrocosm may be reflected in the Shakespearean microcosm,  (and how this is related to the theme of the "Mythic Shakespeare") we will, in this course, touch briefly on all of the major works and consider four or five in some detail.  In addition to specific assignments regarding the works, each student will conduct his/her own research into the poems and plays primarily through internet sources and links.  Synopses and summaries of plays abound on the net as do essays, explications, analyses, and interpretations. This way, everyone should have in the end a general if minimal working knowledge of the corpus. To gain in-depth understanding of specific works, each student, in addition to reading plays chosen by the instructor for in-depth study, will be assigned a single play to explore, research, own.  Additionally, each student will be asked to read a single substantive work of secondary criticism related to Shakespeare (suggestions will be given in class). Also, each student will be part of a school of night group dedicated to meditating on themes, issues, and concerns detailed in Turner's essay listed above as well as making presentations to the class.

The quote from Turner above sets the parameters for approach to Shakespeare. It suggests that there are two primary levels on which Shakespeare can be understood---the Mythic (the Macrocosm) and the Historical (the microcosm). These two levels are present in all the plays and poems and our task in this class is to see how they interact. That Shakespeare drew from mythology, particularly the Roman filtering of Greek material, is indisputable. As with most of his artful contemporaries, Shakespeare's works are rich in reference to Ovid, Plautus, Virgil, and through them to the great ocean of stories that makes up the Greek corpus, extending backwards from late novels to the canonical Greek dramatists (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes), Homer, and into the formative energies of the oral tradition. It is not enough, however, to know that Shakespeare made references to classical mythology. His plays and poems, it may be argued, are themselves profoundly mythological, suggesting a deep interiority as opposed to external ornamentation. This class will be devoted to an investigation into this other interior use of myth by a person of "capable imagination." 

Conventionally, Mythology has to do with ancient tales of gods, goddesses, heroes, creations of worlds, and other themes that, however entertaining, are regarded by the rational mind as fantastic and improbable. Some myth theorists, however, suggest that mythology, properly understood, leads us not away from "reality," but into a richer, deeper, stranger, and more powerfully transformative sense of that word where it may exist without the quotation marks it "wears like claws." (thanks to V. Nabokov for that phrase).

Shakespeare's interest in and use of mythology in all the senses in which that word may be understood is present in the complete works, and in each separate poem or play. Given time restrictions, we are limited to looking at a few poems, a handful of scenes from a variety of plays, and, when we are fortunate, a close and considered reading of works that seem to relate particularly well to the theme of the "mythic Shakespeare." Ideally, each student should read all of Shakespeare in the Pelican volume. The view from this perspective is immense, and few reach these heights, but the effort will be enthusiastically encouraged.

All term papers for this class will have the same title: "Mything Shakespeare." Far from being restrictive, this title opens up myriad possibilities for understanding Shakespeare in what your instructor insists is a deeper and more interesting way, a "both/and" way which sees Shakespeare simultaneously from the macroscopic and microscopic perspective. Details concerning this assignment will be explained in class.

To continue the goal of understanding the mythic/microcosm/macrocosm theme, each student will create an online journal consisting basically of the following: (1) diary entries from each class period reflecting on lectures, discussions, themes and issues; (2) an on-going account of the students relationship with the Shakespeare work assigned; (3) an on-going conversation with the work of secondary criticism chosen; (4) an on-going meditation on the theme of Shakespeare's connection with myth  (5) conversations with other online journalists; (6) links to helpful websites; (7) googlings of class terms and concepts (such as negative capability); (8) Class notes and bookmarks of classmates ejournal sites  (9) miscellaneous images, findings, thoughts, revelations. Samples of previous online journals will be supplied in class by our resident net wizard Rio Gonzalez.

All students will be expected to make oral presentations to the class both individually (final essay) and collectively (as part of a school of night group

Grades will be given based on two exams (100 pts each); a final (50 pts); the journal (150 points); 3-4 pp term paper (100 pts); attendance, presentations, participation & miscellaneous (100). Total: 600. Final Exam:

Initial assignments. Ideally, each student should read all of Shakespeare. A chronological approach to such a reading, while having the virtue of showing the artistic development of the writer, tends to privilege early work over later, given the fact that few will complete the daunting task of a complete reading. Therefore, any arrangement of readings will be approved.

Although we will only be looking at a handful of plays and poems, having a complete works edition---in particular the Pelican edition, to assure that we're all on the "same page"----will allow us to make reference to brief passages from many plays and poems. Please purchase the Pelican edition either through the bookstore or at considerable discount online.

The work of secondary criticism you choose may either be a book approved by the instructor or a substantive work found online.  Since online sources on WS (as with the Bible) are notoriously unreliable, it is important to get approval from the instructor as you survey your choices. Here is a partial list of books which have at worst guarded approval from the instructor: (1) Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being--Ted Hughes  (2) Northrop Frye on Shakespeare  (or Fools of Time by same author)  (3) Shakespeare's Festive Comedies-- CL Barber  (4) Sexual Personae-- Camile Paglia (5) Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human- H Bloom (6)   (7) Shakespeare Our Contemporary-- Jan Kott (or The Bottom Translation by same author). (8) Shakespeare After All--Majorie Garber. (9). Shakespeare and Ovid by Jonathan Bate (or The Genius of Shakespeare by same author). It should come as no surprise that often the best insights into Shakespeare are not by literary critics but by fellow artists. Your instructor recommends reading the following on the Bard: Virginia Woolf, John Berryman, W.H. Auden.

A schedule will be distributed after the first two weeks of class meetings which will shoe test dates and approximate dates for consideration of works to be explored in detail. Until then, 1) Purchase the Pelican Shakespeare at the bookstore  2) Read the poems "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece" as well as sonnets 15, 18, 30, 55, 60, 63, 65, 73, 129, 130. The plays we are most likely to consider in detail are: 1) Midsummer Night's Dream  2) As You Like It  3) Alls Well That Ends Well 4) King Lear 5) Antony and Cleopatra  6) Cymbeline 7) Pericles 8) Winter's Tale  9) The Tempest. 3) Read the online essay by Frederick Turner titled "The School of Night." 4) By February 1, all blogs should be up and running and a choice of secondary criticism made.

Class Notes January 13, 2011

Today we went over the Syllabus and Professor Sexson introduced us the impact that William Shakespeare has had on modern culture. To help hone his point, he read from page 657 and discussed the influence of Greek mythology in this particular passage. We also discussed the differences in the endings between Shakespeare's and Ovid's "Venus & Adonis". 
The four types of Shakespearean plays are: Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, & Romances.
Assignments:
     Blog about "What I already know about Shakespeare and his work"
     Read "The School of Night" http://frederickturnerpoet.com/?page_id=145
     Consider which secondary source you will want to use later in the semester. A list of options is in the syllabus.
     Start reading "Venus & Adonis" & "The Rae of Lucrece"

Vocabulary

• microcosm: history
• macrocosm: mythology
• topoi = topic

What do I know about Shakespeare???? NOTHING

Essentially I know nothing about Shakespeare but I am under the impression that no one knows a whole lot about the man that we now refer to as Shakespeare. I have read exactly 2 of his plays and maybe about 15 sonnets. All of my exposure to his work has happened in the last 2 years here at MSU. In high school, I transferred schools and missed the sections on any of Shakespeare's work. I almost think that it is better though that I do not really have a background in his works at the beginning of this course. Last semester, I started the class with conceptions of the Bible that turned out to be false as the semester progressed. This semester I am starting out as a blank slate. One of the aspects that I do know of that I am looking forward to understanding in Shakespeare's work is the influence of Greek mythology. The subject of Greek Mythology has interested me for years and I try to read or learn more about this topic as often as I can. I think that this class will help me expand my knowledge of this branch of mythology. Another aspect of this class that I am looking forward to is the choice of secondary readings. I was first exposed to Northrop Frye last semester and I personally have to say he is a Genius! His work is awesomely dense and difficult to read but it is well worth the effort of reading a sentence 4 times before understanding what he is saying. I look forward to reading his insights about Shakespeare and his work and then drawing from what I have learned from him and making my own interpretations of William Shakespeare's works and how they have impacted my life in a myriad of ways.