“PBS Now – Gullah Culture” – Short clip from PBS summarizing the history and unique aspects of Gullah culture.
Category: Resources
Resource: When Women Took Up Arms to Fight in Mexico’s Revolution (site)
Good article from the History channel about the different roles women played in the Revolution including details on how some woman traded domestic roles for traditionally masculine ones.
https://www.history.com/news/women-mexican-revolution-soldaderas
Resource: Searching for Soldaderas-The Women of the Mexican Revolution in Photographs (site)
Short article comparing photographs of women who participated in the Mexican Revolution and men: https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/searching-for-soldaderas-the-women-of-the-mexican-revolution-in-photographs
Resource: Revolutionary Women (movie)
Brief clip detailing how women were affected by the revolution and also took part on the front lines.
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-storm-that-swept-mexico-revolutionary-women/
Resource: Shakespeare & friendship (Blog)
Shakespeare & friendship – Great post from the British Library explaining the different ways Elizabethans viewed friendship. MND portrays intense, complicated friendships between both friends and women. Will Tosh considers how these reflect, and sometimes challenge, Elizabethan ideas about what it meant to be a friend.
Resource: Gender & Sexuality in MND (PDF)
“Use Me But as Your Spaniel”: Feminism, Queer Theory, and Early Modern Sexualities – Part of a scholarly article examining how Queer and Feminist scholars have variously interpreted MND. The author argues that simplistic readings of structural inequality deny the lived experiences of women and queer people–lives of various paradoxes and sometimes uncomfortable desires. This is dense, but offers two very detailed, illuminating close-readings of key scenes in MND.
Resource: Meter in MND (PDF)
Meter in Midsummer Night’s Dream – A very brief breakdown of the different forms of verse used in MND, including the uses of the different types (from a 19th century introduction).
Resource: Love and Social Class in MND (PDF)
Aristocratic love/Middle Class love – A short passage from a 19th century German scholar identifying a key difference in how the aristocratic and working-class characters understand love.
Resource: Dream & Illusion in MND (Blog)
Dream, illusion and doubling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Excellent blog post from the British Library that discusses the many types of dreams and illusions that take place int he play. The website also has other great links to material related to MND and other Shakespeare plays.
Resource: Cupid & Psyche (PDF)
Cupid and Psyche is a story within-a-story comes from the only surviging Roman novel, The Golden Ass. It’s a novel that Shakespeare read, so it’s obviously a source for MND (and Sleeping Beauty, actually).
This is a good translation of the the three chapters in which the Cupid and Psyche story take place. Really, you only need to read the first of the chapters. I included the other two in case you wondered what happens with them
In the story, a mortal woman named Psyche (Greek for “soul”) angers Venus. Venus sends her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love the most horrible man he can find (sound familiar?). Cupid bungles it, falls in love, and Venus gets vengeance.
