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.
Resource: Race in MND (Podcast)
Shakespeare: Love Across the Racial Divide [Podcast, 15 min.]– Short podcast from the BBC in which host Yasmin Alibhai-Brown explores MND through the lens of race. The episode focuses on love in the human and fairy worlds, touches on the plays historical context and how the play has been adapted abroad recently.
This is a great podcast that’s good if you’re interested in the relationship between Oberon and Titania, the exoticism of the Indian boy, and the relationship between Titania and Bottom.
Resource: Shaping Rice’s MND (Podcast)
If you watched the Emma Rice production of MND and have lots of questions, you might be interested in this 30 min. podcast. Tanika Gupta, the script editor and Emma Rice’s collaborator, is interviewed about many of the changes that they made to the script. It’s a fascinating listen and will definitely make you think differently about the choices that were made behind the scenes.
TANIKA GUPTA ON RESHAPING THE GLOBE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
DB: Essay I ideas (due 3/5)
In a reply to the Essay I ideas thread on the discussion board, write about your ideas for Essay I. You are free to reply to another student’s comment if you’re writing on a the same theme–sometimes conversation is more helpful than simply waiting for your instructor to check in!
Some tips:
Essay I: Close Reading (draft due 3/12)
“. . . I never may believe / these antique fables, nor these fairy toys. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / are of imagination all compact.” — THESEUS
(MND 5.1.15-18)
Write a professional essay in which you identify an important theme in MND and discuss how the the play explores that theme by comparing two scenes. Consider imagery, symbols, allusions, references, indications of tone, hints at stage directions, verse forms, ect.
Continue reading “Essay I: Close Reading (draft due 3/12)”
