SHAKESPEARE through YOUTUBE

7/29/2019 SHAKESPEARE through YOUTUBE

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Teaching Shakespeare with YouTubeAuthor(s): Christy DesmetSource: The English Journal, Vol. 99, No. 1 (Sep., 2009), pp. 65-70Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40503329 .

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Teachinghakespearewith ouTubeYouTube an help tudentsbetterppreciate iterarydetails nShakespeare ndlearn more bout thecultural nd aestheticvalueof mitation,arody,and irony.

I that llowsviewers ouploadvideo^Afe content ranging fromcute dogtricks o rare ockvideos, lso sup-portsa livelycommunity evotedto the perfor-mance of Shakespeare and Shakespeareanadaptations. eachers an find arities rom opularculture, uchas the Beatlesperforminghe"Pyra-musand Thisbe"scenefromA Midsummeright'sDreamBeatles) o an episodefrom illigan'sslandthat nvolves performancefHamlet "The Pro-ducer").Another erennialfavorite s the HughLaurie/Rowantkinsonkit,n which heaterman-agerPhilipHensloweruthlesslyditsHamlet "Tobe ornotto be" soliloquy o itsfamiliar orm,ut-raging hakespeare hoproclaims hat herevisedspeech we have all memorized s "gibberish"("Shakespeareketch").YouTubealso offersmanyprofessionalnd semiprofessionaldaptations. orOthello,heReducedShakespeare ompany's thelloRaphasbeenviewedbynearly 00,000 users.Andthenthere re student ideosof the same rap:animpromptu ar-trip erformance"Othello Rap")and the LocustValleyHigh SchoolJesters, lusKatyand Danny'soriginalrapon OthelloKovacsandWittels).YouTube s alsoa popular itefor tudent ro-ducers fShakespeare erformances,arodies, ndother rtistic fforts,n mostcases to fulfill classassignment.While teachers ave beenalert o thepotential f onlineShakespeare orclassroomn-structionnd lessonplans1and have encouragedstudents o publishtheir hakespeare roductionsonYouTube, find eachers aveyet omakeYou-

TubeShakespeareideos nexplicit ubject f lass-room nalysis.To help tudentspply he amekindof ntel-lectual crutinyo "published" ideosmakes ense,however, or t least threereasons. irst, here sample evidence hat students re alreadyvisitingYouTube ornspirationhen reatingheir rojects.How else could one explain he fact hatYouTubelistsnearly 0 entries orvideos of Macbeth singLegos! The ability o search he itequickly, lusacapacity o subscribeo individual hannels,makesiteasy ornyoneo review apidly largenumberfvideos nsimilar hemes. econd, ouTube sperfectfor hekindofpeerreviewhatwe want tudentsoengage nas theywrite, reate,nd revise heirworkin differentmedia. YouTube's infrastructureparticularlyhetagging ndthreadingfvideos ndthe bilityopostvideoresponses encouragesharpcomparisonsndpointed evisions ith ach ucces-sivevideo hat suploaded. inally,he aseofrepeti-tion "Replay"sonly click way) oupledwith helengthimitationsmposed yYouTubefocus iew-ers' ttentionharplynd thuspromote loseanaly-sis. YouTubeviewers egularlyomment,whetherapprovinglyrdisapprovingly,n minute etails nthe videos theywatch anything romhistoricalanachronismsotiny ound ffects.heurge o readclosely eemspositivelyontagiousmongYouTubeaficionados.I suggest hatwe can and shoulduse YouTubevideos in the classroomboth to analyzeprimaryShakespearean exts much as we currently seDVDs of commercial hakespeare ilmsforthispurpose and to generate opicsfor reating nd

English ournal 9 1 (2009): 65-70 65

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Teaching Shakespeare with YouTube

standards or valuating tudents' roductions.nthisway,YouTube videoscan become a locus forhoning tudents' kills ncritical eading nd writ-ing both erms eingbroadly onstrued).What Is YouTube Shakespeare?YouTube n general s a hybrid enre:partvideo,partwebsite,tcombines he mmediacyf hefirstwith he earch apacitynd critical istance fthesecond.While YouTubeharbors rofessionalid-eos,such s trailers or pcoming ilms,he workam talking bout herebelongs properly o whatboth dmirersnd detractorsave called "amateurculture." awrence essig, he nventorfCreative

Commonsand a fan of theYouTube hakespeare phenomenon,efines heworkworks hetorically of mateurs n theWeb as thethroughmitation, creative aPPrpriation andreuse of existing materials,parody,7 and irony. , ,-, , T . c7 7 what ,-,Claude Levi-Strauss. ccalledtheartofbricolage.er-haps more mportant orLessig,amateurs reatetheirworkfromove,without nyexpectation fcompensation,nd thusacquire n aura of artisticpurity. essigsprincipal pponent n thispoint sAndrew een,the ubtitle fwhose ritique f m-ateur ulture s HowToday'snternets KillingOurCulture. eenargues hat mateurwork n the n-ternet oo oftennvolves oththe theft f others'intellectualropertye.g., Napster) nd a dumbingdownofknowledgeinKeen'sopinion, he ffectfWikipedia).Teachers robablywill want to takebothpositionsnto consideration hencounselingstudentsbouttheir rojects, ut theyouth ulturethatYouTube upports,ynatureppropriativendplayful,s already powerfulultural orcen thecontemporarynitedStates.One particularlylever ubgenre fYouTubeShakespeares thevideomashup, sually resentedin the form f a movietrailer. his genre s easilyimitated nd demonstrateserfectlyheprocessesofcreativeppropriation.robably he best exam-ple amongtheShakespeare ideos on YouTube is"Hamlet s Back,"which ombines lipsofArnoldSchwarzeneggern TheLast ActionHerowith anarray f hotsfrom ther ilms o create lushepicinthe tyle fJames ameron.3he result s atonceaesthetically leasing,technically roficient,nd

very unny.he swellingmusic ndvistas fgallop-ing horses n the trailers peningcredits ontrastwellwith hedark hadowsnwhichHamlet s en-shrouded ndwiththeharsh iolence hatfollowsin hiswake. The clipsappropriatedrom ifferentfilms reknittedogethereamlesslyndoftenwitha refinedense f rony. nd bestof ll are the ing-ers that replacedat perfectmoments hroughoutthe trailer. hesearefunny ithout eing particu-larly riginal. or nstance,Hamlet s Back" liftsdirectly romThe Last Action ero wo of its bestquips: Hamlet's statement to Claudius "Youkilled my fadda; big mistake!" just prior tothrowingheusurper ing through stained-glasswindow; nd Hamlet'sresponse o an anonymouslord's plea to "Stay thy hand, fair Prince"Schwarzenegger eplies,"Who says I'm fair?"which s followed ya blazeofgunfires Hamlet,ingladiator ress, oams hrough medieval astlewreaking arnagewith nautomaticweapon.YouTube Shakespeare works rhetoricallythroughmitation, arody,nd irony. ouTube re-stricts he ength ndsizeofvideos to ten minutesand twogigabytes fmaterial, o the venue auto-maticallyncouragesn aesthetic fbrevity, hichin turn s congenial o parody.YouTubeparodiesare constructed as examplesof thisgenreoftenare through election and condensation f theparent ext. ometimes ouTube uthors ocus nasingle cene; ometimeshey queezeanentire layinto fewminutesmuch ike theReduced Shake-

Living ambic Pentameter,he mostpopularvideo on theFolger'sYouTubechannel,http://www.youtube.com/FolgerLibrary.

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ChristyDesmet

speareCompany's omplete orks).ut the rhetoricof brevity nd its tendency owardparodyandironyhave long been entrenchedn US schoolsthroughhe xample fTomStoppardsRosencrantzand GuildensternreDead, a stapleof the schoolcurriculum. ven more directly elevant o thestructuref YouTube videosmightbe Stoppard'sTheFifteen inuteHamlet, spoof hatworks n-tirely y excisingportions f thisfamiliar ext tocreate bsurd uxtapositions.Thetendencyoward arody hroughonden-sation nd udicious uoting hat toppardmodelsso well is evident verywheren YouTubeShake-speare,nd this endencyffers any pportunitiesfor omingnonspecific assages rom heprintedtextofShakespeare. omeproductions theLegoMacbethsmongthem quoteselectedbits of textinways hat re reminiscentfearly ilentfilms fShakespeare. hus, a particular ceneusing Legofigures ould be introducedya slidewith uotedtext.A slightly ifferentpproach o the Shake-speareantext would be parodies that translateShakespeare's lays into a contemporaryettingwithout ltering hetext. One ofmyfavoritex-amples is "Urban Shakespeare,"n which threeyoungwomen,withbackupfrom ther erformers,reenact cenesfromHamlet n an ordinary own-town etting. he appearance fthe elderHamlet'sghost, ornstance,s signaledbytheblinking fcar'sheadlightsarked utside closed tore;Ham-let's highlycharged nterviewwith his mother,which ncludes he tabbing fPolonius, akes lacein thefrozen ood ection fPriceChopper. he set-ting s changed, utthe textremains he same. nanother ariation n thistheme, hakespearetextis set tomusic; ee,for nstance,he shortMacbethvideo "Dagger,"which s part song,partrap. Itscentral heme s "Screwyour ourage o the stick-ingpoint, And we'll notfail."Still other hakespeare arodies ranslate heBard's anguage ntoa morecontemporarydiom.In what sprobablyhe ongest ndmost ophisti-catedperformancevailable on YouTube,future-brien's "Hamlet,Prince of Denmark Parody),"Claudius's iousassertionhathe s Hamlet'sfatheris transformedy a cherubic dolescentmonarch("I'm theKing, boy") nto rowdy laim that I'myour poppa!" Another xample might be "CSI:Macbeth,"hich lternateshakespeare'sineswith

plain-style ranslations. shorter ideo entitled"Macbeth:hortFilmTrailer,"whichworksvaria-tionson Banquo'sclaimthatMacbethhas it all"King,Cawdor,Glamis" combineshe ranslationofselect ines ntoplainEnglishwith n emphasisonvisual mages epresentingomeof heplay'skeyevents,magesthat ronically ndercut heverbalassertionfMacbeths success suchas a glimpse fblood spiralingdown the sinkdrain); thisvideowouldreward oth extual nd visual nalysis.Finally,here revideos hat renearly anto-mimes, ocusingn action t theexpense fShake-speareananguage.A prime xamplewould be thepopular "StarWars HamletParody,Hilarious,"alightsaber uel betweenHamlet and Laertes hataddsDarthVaderfilterso the ctors' oicesbutad-heres crupulouslyo the sequenceof eventspre-scribednShakespeare'slotofHamlet,ct5.Withinthis astgenre reother ideos hat chieve struc-turalist urity y miniaturizationnd/or ransfor-mationof the actors nto animals,dolls, actionfigures,nd cartoon haracterse.g., guineapigs,TeenageMutantNinja Turtles, r bunnies).Foragood example,ee"RomeondJuliet: ctedOut withNinjaTurtles," hich ppears nMetacafe.com.oranotherophisticatedxample rom universitytu-dent nmy lass, eethe RomeoJuliet topMotionStyle" yChristopherhattas.How Can I Use YouTube Shakespeareinthe Classroom?Byvirtue fthesite'sconstruction,henecessarilybriefYouTube videos are perfect or ntroducingkeyconcepts o be used in hands-on lassroomc-tivitiesof both an analytic nd creativenature.Anyonewith an Internet onnection an connectdirectlyo YouTube.For lassrooms here ouTubeis blocked,RealAudioPlayer llowsone to down-load videosdirectlyntoa computer r flash rive.This allows videos to be played n the classroomwithout n Internetonnectionnd is particularlyattractivefan offlineopyofthe video is neededforfuture eference.Caveat mptor:here s natu-rally certain mount f nstabilitynYouTube, son theWeb ingeneral.Not onlydo YouTuberulesaffect he vailabilityfvideosover ime,but ndi-vidual contributorsrequentlyemove ideos;morevideos areaddedevery ay.)MostYouTubevideos

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The Folger'sYouTubechannel,http://www.youtube.com/FolgerLibrary.

are no more than fiveminutes n length,whichmakes them more flexible or lassroom se eventhanDVDs that re dividedby chapters.YouTube Shakespearevideos are infinitelyadaptableto classroomessonplans thatfocusoninterpretingheShakespearean lotand text.To agreatextent,manyof theFolger Shakespeare i-brary's xistingessonplans nYouTubeanhelpstudentsot nly ogenerateut lso toevaluate mateurShakespeareanideoproductions,odelingnicelyhepeer eviewprocesseshat reoftenusedfor riticalnalysisof heir wn nd of heir

peers' fforts.

ShakespeareetFree:TeachingAMidsummerNight's Dream,Romeo and Juliet, nd Mac-beth O'Brien)can be adaptedto incorporate xamplesfromYouTube. For instance,theShakespeareet Free esson planforRomeondJuliet sks teach-ersto compare wofilm lipsfrom selected scenes of theplay (O'Brien 154-55). You-Tube videosselectedthroughan efficientearch n the sitecan easilybe substituted orthemovieclips.Other exercises hatcall forplotsummaries r charts f a Shakespeare lay's ction(e.g., Lesson5 forRomeondJuliet pp. 130-31)can be replacedwithor introduced ythequasipantomimic enre f YouTube videothat s repre-sented here by "Star Wars Hamlet Parody,Hilarious."YouTubevideoscan be used to modeleither he selection fShakespeareanexts or ur-ther iscussion r theprocess ftranslatinghake-

spearean ext nto contemporarydiom.Theycanbe offered,s films ften re, s examples f visualtranslation f and commentaryn theShakespear-ean text thatwas their nspiration. inally,You-Tube videos can provide tudents aised on TomStoppardwith xamples f or nspirationorronicandparodie ranslationsfShakespeareanext ndscenes.By far, hemostprolific osters fShake-speareanvideos on YouTubeare highschoolstu-dents and young college filmmakers. hey arerecognizable s adolescents, lbeit often alentedand ambitiousones. Among the advantages hatYouTube offers or lassroom eachers verprofes-sionalShakespeareanilms the closeproximitynage between heseyoungproducersnd one stu-dents that makes the YouTube artist a suitableclassroom olemodel.Additionally,ouTube canhelpstudents otonly ogenerate ut lsoto evaluate mateur hake-speareanvideo productions,modeling nicelythepeerreview rocesseshat re often sed for riticalanalysis ftheir wn andoftheir eers' fforts.hesame typeof comparative xerciseforanalyzingfilmedhakespeareaneasilybe adaptedfor ssess-ingamateur ideos, ndteachers eed notbeoverlyworried bout finding ideos of exactly he samescenes or urposes fcomparison. mong hevid-

eos introducedn thisessay, or nstance, tudentscould compare hemurder f Fleance n "MacbethParodyfor nEnglishProject),"whose ettingndpropsare simpleand whoseproduction alues arelessthanperfect, iththe more ophisticateddit-ing and filmnoir ethos of "Macbeth: hortFilmTrailer. Studentsmight lsobring ntheir avoriteexamples or ritique.Withthe teacher's elp,per-haps,students an generate riteria or an entirerubric for ssessing ideos.YouTube as a CulturalPhenomenonTeachersmightwonder boutthewisdom freach-ingout tosuch popular ulture enue sYouTubeand its adolescent ontributors. ut to mymind,the amateur ulturenurturedysuch sites s You-Tube is full ofhigh-quality s well as immaturework; ven more nteresting,heemerging enresof amateurShakespearehave, I think,begun toexert omeback-pressuren other ultural roduc-tions.The sheer ize ofsuch sitesas YouTube and

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wide circulation f ts videos make matters f n-fluencevolatile and indeterminate. ometimes,patterns f mitation etweenYouTubeand otherartisticnd evenpedagogicalforms reso indirectas to be simplypartofan evolving rtisticZeit-geist. In 2005, for nstance, ne ofmy students"staged" hemurder fJuliusCaesarusingTeen-ageMutantNinja Turtles igures,n idea that hecame up with on herown. In January 009, bycontrast, found number f sites nvolving heTurtles in quasi-puppetperformancesf playsranging rom thello oRomeondJuliet. ut You-Tube Shakespeare,which harborsmany perfor-mances ndparodiesusinganimal and toyfigures,definitelyas found high-cultureompanion ntheperformancesf hakespeareutonbytheTinyNinja Theaterhttp://www.tinyninjatheater.com/),whichusesnot thefamous urtles, ut othermin-iature haracters. n May 25, 2002, for nstance,thetheater resented omeondJuliet t the Pic-coloSpoletoFestivalnCharleston,outhCarolina.The showreturnedoNew York nJanuary 009.The Theater's esthetic fminiaturization esem-bles closely hat ofmanyYouTubeShakespeareanventures.YouTubes motto is "BroadcastYourself."Coupledwith he nvitation oself-displaysa con-comitantmperativeo sharevideoswithfriends,colleagues,ndfamily. erhaps his ombinationfmotives rovideshebestreason et ouseYouTubein the hakespearelassroom. articipatingn a vir-tual networkfShakespeareanrtists, othas pro-ducers ndcritics, ives tudents real take ntheshaping fShakespeareor urtime.Notes

1. See,fornstance,heFolger hakespeareibrary'sYouTube hannel.2. Thanks speciallyo PeterHollandfor allingmyattentionotheLegoMacbethhenomenon.3. This clip, although eriodicallyemoved romtheYouTube itefor opyrightiolations,s then uicklyre-uploadedy tsmany ans. xamples re oftenvailablewith ubtitlesn severalanguages.

Works CitedBeatles. ShakespeareA Midsummeright's ream"You-Tube.com. Oct.2008.Web. 14Jan. 009. ."CSI:Macbeth."ouTube.com.1 Dec. 2008.Web. 14Jan.2009.


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Stopparci,om. he ifteeninuteamlet.ondonndNewYork:rench,976. rint.. RosencrantzGuildensternreDead.NewYork:Grove, 967.Print."Urban hakespeare."ouTube.com. 4 Jan.2007. Web.13Jan. 009. .

ChristyDesmet is professor f English nd director f first-yearompositionat the Universityf Georgia. She has taughtShakespearefor25 yearsand currentlyffers hakespeare inthe Classroom,a course intendedforuniversitytudents whopotentiallyre interestedna careeras an educator. Email her at [email protected].

READWRITETHINK CONNECTION Joyce Bruett,RWT"ConstructingewUnderstandinghrough horalReadings fShakespeare"uses TheTempest s a modeltocomposea choral eading. his ctivityotonly sks students o performsection f a scene but also invitesthem o think bouttheme nd character yputtingogetherines hatdo not occur hronologicallyntheplay.Students an thenproduce heir wn version fShakespeare, imilar o the videoaccompanyinghe esson.http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1121

Shakespearenterrupted(or"Winter issethByetoBook")Butsoft,whosedeath s this?Outsidethe ongwindowOf theclassroomSnowhasfallen.Die, Tuesday!Die, Wednesday!Die, Thursday!And fFriday rinketh hepoison,So be it.Somewheren this leepWhatdreams avecome!(Thechildren auseandexit,missing heir essonall charactersuriouslyaliveand wellon theneighborhoodillwith rash ags

andgo-devilssledstooold to be so newbold black nner ubespatient ats ndmittens.)So now thepoisoned word an waitThemessagemight rrive afely.Juliet s still wakeRomeo cantake breath nd drink asy,And Hamlet can ustrelax nd beForone frozenmomentWhiledays re axedAndtragedyoopostponed oappearOn thefinal xam.(It was the ndwe all werehopingfor.)

- Lisa Mitchell2009 LisaMitchellLisa Mitchell's poems have appeared inFireweed,Main StreetRag, and Poet's ForumMagazine. She is a teacher at LakeOswego HighSchool nearPortland,Oregon. She has taughtEnglish anguage artsfor17 yearsat the eighth- hroughtwelfth-gradeevels.

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SHAKESPEARE through YOUTUBE

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