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Using contemporary culture to explore Early Modern literature

Shakespeare v. Lady Gaga. Using contemporary culture to explore Early Modern literature. Sarah Olive University of York sarah.olive@york.ac.uk. Student activity 1. You will be presented with three sets of text or images, some relating to Shakespeare, some to Lady Gaga

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Using contemporary culture to explore Early Modern literature

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  1. Shakespeare v. Lady Gaga Using contemporary culture to explore Early Modern literature Sarah Olive University of York sarah.olive@york.ac.uk

  2. Student activity 1 • You will be presented with three sets of text or images, some relating to Shakespeare, some to Lady Gaga • Each group will be allocated a particular set to work on • In your groups, discuss possible connections between the texts

  3. Set 1 ‘It was of the essence of Shakespeare’s art that he inherited – or stole – materials and transformed them. Nearly all Shakespeare’s plays are rewritings of one kind or another. His works were in all sorts of respects prewritten by others, just as they have been subsequently rewritten by others...Harold Bloom proposes that...original writing occurs in the act of re-creation, the wresting of the great literature of the past to the purposes of the later artist’ (Bate 104). The reference [to ‘Express Yourself’ in ‘Born this way’] seemed so obvious that it had to be intentional because, as you say, you’re not stupid… “No. Listen to me...I’m a songwriter. I’ve written loads of music...If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It’s the same one that’s been in disco music for the last 50 years. Just because I’m the first fucking artist in 25 years to think of putting it on Top 40 radio, it doesn’t mean I’m a plagiarist, it means that I’m fucking smart.” (NME)

  4. Set 2 ‘If you have knitted your brows.., slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing...you are ...quoting Shakespeare’. (Bernard Levin) FIRST LORD: ...Portotartarossa. FIRST SOLDIER: (to Paroles). He calls for the tortures. What will you say...? PAROLES: I will confess what I know without constraint. If ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more. FIRST SOLDIER: Bosko chimurcho? FIRST LORD: Boblibindo chicurmurcho. FIRST SOLDIER : You are a merciful general. (All’s Well 4.3 119-126) From ‘Sheiβe’, Born This Way ‘I don’t speak German , But I can if you like (Ow). Ich Shleiban austa be-clair Es kumpent madre monster Aus-be, aus-can-be flaugen Begun beske but-bair’ http://www.ladygaga.com/lyrics/ default.aspx?tid=23592561

  5. Set 3 GHOST:  I am thy father’s spirit;  Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,  Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature  Are burnt and purg’d away. ...List, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love HAMLET:  O God!     GHOST: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. (Hamlet I.V. 15-31) Top : ‘Bad Romance’. Middle and bottom right: ‘Telephone’. Bottom left: ‘Paparazzi’.

  6. Student Activity 2 • Consider the sets of texts/images again. • This time discuss whether Shakespeare’s and Gaga’s examples of plagiarism/retelling, linguistic creation, and revenge differ. • If so, how?

  7. Set 1 ‘It was of the essence of Shakespeare’s art that he inherited – or stole – materials and transformed them. Nearly all Shakespeare’s plays are rewritings of one kind or another. His works were in all sorts of respects prewritten by others, just as they have been subsequently rewritten by others...Harold Bloom proposes that...original writing occurs in the act of re-creation, the wresting of the great literature of the past to the purposes of the later artist’ (Bate 104). The reference [to ‘Express Yourself’ in ‘Born this way’] seemed so obvious that it had to be intentional because, as you say, you’re not stupid… “No. Listen to me...I’m a songwriter. I’ve written loads of music...If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It’s the same one that’s been in disco music for the last 50 years. Just because I’m the first fucking artist in 25 years to think of putting it on Top 40 radio, it doesn’t mean I’m a plagiarist, it means that I’m fucking smart.” (NME)

  8. Set 2 ‘If you have knitted your brows.., slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing...you are ...quoting Shakespeare’. (Bernard Levin) FIRST LORD: ...Portotartarossa. FIRST SOLDIER: (to Paroles). He calls for the tortures. What will you say...? PAROLES: I will confess what I know without constraint. If ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more. FIRST SOLDIER: Bosko chimurcho? FIRST LORD: Boblibindo chicurmurcho. FIRST SOLDIER : You are a merciful general. (All’s Well 4.3 119-126) From ‘Sheiβe’, Born This Way ‘I don’t speak German , But I can if you like (Ow). Ich Shleiban austa be-clair Es kumpent madre monster Aus-be, aus-can-be flaugen Begun beske but-bair’ http://www.ladygaga.com/lyrics/ default.aspx?tid=23592561

  9. Set 3 GHOST:  I am thy father’s spirit;  Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,  Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature  Are burnt and purg’d away. ...List, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love HAMLET:  O God!     GHOST: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. (Hamlet I.V. 15-31) Top : ‘Bad Romance’. Middle and bottom right: ‘Telephone’. Bottom left: ‘Paparazzi’.

  10. Summing up from activity • Cultural transmission • Shakespeare was a key medium through which Medieval literature and culture (mystery and saints plays) survived into Early Modern and beyond. • Today’s artists, such as Lady Gaga, similarly draw on and adapt age-old creative techniques and narratives and re-invent them for their generation. • Authorial Craft • Shakespeare’s craft, elements of his creativity such as playing with language, boundaries of natural/unnatural behaviour, is still apparent in the work of artists today.

  11. Meeting educational targets • Engages students with Shakespeare; • Develops student knowledge of literary criticism and context of the plays; • Offers a new take on English for cultural heritage; • Draws on and values a wide range of literacies.

  12. Beyond educational targets • Tangibly increases the study of popular culture; • Facilitates understandings of the socially constructed nature of texts; • Encourages students to engage critically with multiple meanings of texts; • Foregrounds an artist from marginalised groups.

  13. Problematising the approach • Limited life span of Lady Gaga’s cultural currency; • Ethics of using Gaga with children; • Level of assumed knowledge; • Too radical for policy makers? • Not radical enough ?

  14. Using contemporary culture to explore Early Modern literature • Studying Shakespeare inside/out: encouraging • Exploration of dis/continuity between Shakespeare and modern popular culture • Break through the surface of what is usual in Shakespeare lessons • Finding meaning through intersections between EM plays and contemporary culture.

  15. Further resources: • Burt, Richard. Shakespeares after Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2007. • Davison, Jon and John Moss, eds. Issues in English Teaching. London: Routledge, 2000. • Hansen, Adam. Shakespeare and popular music. London: Continuum, 2010. • Monaghan, F. and B. Mayor (2007). ‘English in the curriculum’ in Learning English (ed. N. Mercer, J. Swann and B. Meyer). Abingdon: Routledge. 151-176. • Moran, Caitlin How to be a woman. London: Ebury, 2011. • Paglia, Camille. ‘What’s sex got to do with it?’. The Sunday Times Magazine. 12 September 2010. 14-21. • Sanders, Julie. Shakespeare and Music. London: Polity, 2007.

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