Next, hold part two of the roundtable, focusing on why the authorship question matters and what the

Who was Shakespeare? Who wrote Shakespeare s works? Why does it matter? budget rental car coupons The Roland budget rental car coupons Emmerich film Anonymous dramatizes an alternative authorship theory, giving rise to spirited debate among scholars and in popular culture. Go to related article »
Overview | Why does William Shakespeare endure, from the classroom to the stage to the multiplex? In this lesson, students investigate arguments and evidence regarding questions over Shakespearean authorship, budget rental car coupons which is the topic of the movie Anonymous, and hold a roundtable discussion about the controversy and about Shakespeare s relevance today. Finally, they create Shakespearean adaptations in the medium and context budget rental car coupons of their choice.
Warm-Up | Arrange students in pairs, and give each pair one of the following the following New York Times article excerpts, all published in the past year. Each excerpt refers to a Shakespearean character or phrase, but do not reveal that yet. Instead, instruct the groups to interpret budget rental car coupons their assigned comparison or reference, drawing on background knowledge and context clues.
He is a fiery, budget rental car coupons publicity-craving wisecracker with a reputation as a Romeo and a habit of turning up in the tabloids. – Opposites in Many Ways, but Seemingly Melded Well (former congressman Anthony Weiner)
He seemed to know he was plunging himself budget rental car coupons and Libya down a tragic path, and, like Macbeth, to embrace it. Perhaps he understood that he had gone "so far in blood" that there was no turning back. – Qaddafi s Faustian budget rental car coupons Bargain (Muammar el-Qaddafi)
After enough hand-wringing to make Lady Macbeth proud, Kobe Bryant made a triumphant return to being Kobe Bryant, with one dunk Tuesday night seemingly lifting budget rental car coupons the Lakers out of their funk against the Hornets and adding to his mythical qualities by rising above age (who said he was slowing down?) and injury (sprained ankle, schmankle). – Kobe Bryant Rises Again (Kobe Bryant)
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Gandhi saw most of this coming and sometimes despaired. The real tragedy of his life, [biographer Joseph] Lelyveld argues, was "not because he was assassinated, nor because his noblest qualities inflamed the hatred in his killer's heart. The tragic element is that he was ultimately forced, like Lear, to see the limits of his ambition to remake his world." – How Gandhi Became Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi)
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DC now says the books will be available on other e-readers through the Kindle app. "Just because we're starting with Amazon, this is not the be-all and end-all of our digital strategy and distribution," said Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Entertainment, the parent company of DC Comics. – In a Battle of the E-Readers, Booksellers Spurn Superheroes
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After a few minutes, invite budget rental car coupons all groups to share their article excerpts and interpretations with the whole class. Discuss them and clear up any misunderstandings. Then reveal that all of the excerpts contain references from Shakespeare. Can the groups identify the characters and sayings ? Were they familiar with them previously ? If so, what did they know? If not, how did they interpret the Times article excerpts?
Next, ask students why they think Shakespearean references and allusions are common in publications like The New York Times and in popular culture. Can they think of other examples? Why are his works referred to extensively and often? What do they know about Shakespeare? What do they think he was like? List what they know, and their impressions, on the board.
Have they heard anything about the movie Anonymous ? Show a trailer and invite students to share their reactions. Then ask: What does the film suggest about William Shakespeare? Did anything surprise you? What does the fact that this movie was made by a director of blockbusters, and released in mainstream theaters, say about Shakespeare s role in popular culture? Does the trailer make you interested in seeing the movie? Why or why not? What would change if we seriously doubted that Shakespeare wrote the body of work attributed to him – or if we knew conclusively that someone else wrote it? Why does anyone budget rental car coupons care?
The good news is that "Anonymous" makes an extraordinarily poor case for the Oxfordian theory. I could nitpick the film all day. (In fact, I did on the day I saw it.) Mistakes are plentiful and glaring. In an early scene, Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe watches a new play, "Henry V," which supposedly happens on the same day that Lord Essex departs for Ireland. But Marlowe died in 1593, while Essex left for Ireland in 1599. When Marlowe is killed, Ben Jonson confronts Shakespeare with the crime, saying that he "slit [his] throat," but Christopher Marlowe was actually stabbed budget rental car coupons above the eye, according budget rental car coupons to the coroner's report. Simple chronological or factual fudges, you might say — sure, but there's more. The theatrical censor responds with shock to the idea that in Shakespeare's version of "Richard III," the king is portrayed as a hunchback. But Shakespeare did not invent that idea. In the influential "History of Richard III," by Thomas More, written around 1516, Richard is "little of stature, ill featured of limbs, crook backed, his left shoulder budget rental car coupons much higher than his right." And so on. In the film, Shakespeare's fellow playwrights are all amazed that "Romeo and Juliet" is in iambic pentameter, but by the time "Romeo and Juliet" came out, drama in iambic budget rental car coupons pentameter was the standard; the first extant English play in iambic pentameter was "Gorboduc," by Norton and Sackville, in 1561.
The craziest idea in "Anonymous," however, is that Edward de Vere wrote a version of "A Midsummer budget rental car coupons Night's Dream" 40 years before its performance at court, putting the composition of the play somewhere around 1560. (That's what the film implies, anyway: we see a scene from "A Midsummer Night's budget rental car coupons Dream" performed at court, and then the title "40 Years Earlier," and then a kid who turns out to be the earl reciting Puck's final speech.) The idea that a kid wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream" isn't even the crazy part. To put the issue in a contemporary framework, it's one thing to say that somebody other than Jay-Z wrote "The Blueprint"; it's another to say that this clandestine Jay-Z wrote "The Blueprint" in 1961. You can't write a hip-hop masterpiece before hip-hop has been invented. And you can't write "A Midsummer Night's Dream" until English secular comedy has come into existence.
What does Mr. Marche mean when he says that the liberties with facts in Anonymous become serious when they enter our conception of real history ? Do you agree or disagree with him that the premise of Anonymous is an example of willful ignorance and insidious false balance that is now rotting away our capacity to have meaningful budget rental car coupons discussions ?
Activity | Explain to the class that they will hold a roundtable discussion about Shakespearean authorship: the doubts that have been raised and the counterarguments, along with larger questions about why it matters.
budget rental car coupons To prepare for the discussion, assign small groups to read one specific piece written about the Shakespeare budget rental car coupons authorship question. Resources might include ShakespeareAuthorship.com , ShakespeareAuthorship.org , DoubtAboutWill.org , the Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre budget rental car coupons , Rogues Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars , the Shakespearean Authorship Trust and Shakespeare Oxford Society , along with New York Times articles like the Op-Ed Hollywood Dishonors the Bard, the 2002 theater review Splitting the Credit Between a Bad Bard and a Gentle Will, the 2002 article A Historic Whodunit: If Shakespeare Didn t, Who Did? and the 2005 book review The Shakespeare budget rental car coupons Code, and Other Fanciful Ideas from the Traditional Camp.
When they are ready, hold a two-part roundtable budget rental car coupons discussion. Begin with the first topic: Shakespearean authorship. Start by having each group present the main arguments and supporting evidence they read, and then invite discussion. Which arguments and evidence are most compelling and convincing? Which are least compelling and convincing? Why?
Next, hold part two of the roundtable, focusing on why the authorship question matters and what the controversy tells us about the continuing role of Shakespeare in culture and the world. They might consider the perspectives of people ranging from English teachers, professors, budget rental car coupons scholars and students; theater companies and actors, and theatergoers; screenwriters, movie directors, actors and moviegoers; creative writers, newspaper and magazine writers; and others.
Current examples include Nearly Lear, a one-woman production that omits many characters and mixes slang with the play s dialogue; the Radio and Juliet ballet that uses the music of Ra