Looking for Shakespeare
Shakespeare is appropriated by educators and others to serve their own purposes (Allen, 1991, p. 42–43), whether they be to teach the heritage of English literature, to perpetuate the examinations system, the Shakespeare industry and its Bardolatry, or, in this case, to promote adolescent response. The perspective from which Looking for Shakespeare begins is that of an inquiry into the layers of personal meaning in the play: Shakespeare’s “open text” challenges participants to reassess and transform their perceptions and their worldview (Allen, 1991, p. 45). A four–week intensive theatre workshop for adolescents which began at New York University in 1999, the program was conceived for inner–city adolescents who may not have had any theatre background to get to know and to perform a Shakespeare play. We adopted an integrated arts approach, employing improvisation, role play, visual art, creative writing, movement and music to explore and illuminate the text.
Emancipating Shakespeare: Cultural Transmission or Cultural Transformation?
The study of Shakespeare is generally regarded as an essential element of young people's education. Teachers and teaching artists have the explicit aim of making his work more accessible. While we support this aim, we argue that many interventions are based on the deficit model of social capital that regards some cultural forms, in this case Shakespeare's work, as superior to others. In the deficit model, Shakespeare becomes a tool for □ olonized □ those from different cultural traditions and, as with any attempt at□ olonized □□ n, meets with resistance. In Looking for Shakespeare we take a different approach to building social and cultural capital that stresses difference rather than deficit, based on a theoretical model first developed by Pierre Bourdieu. Within the supportive environment of the programme, we employ strategies such as non-traditional casting, personal monologues and visual metaphor. We seek to challenge and extend the identities that adolescents bring, so that the Shakespeare characters they create will be extensions of themselves. This process of using visual art, writing and improvisation towards character building has implications not only for their performance, but for the way in which young people build social and cultural capital, and on how they can use this capital to colonize their potential in their own lives. Looking for Shakespeare has evolved over a period of eight years. Its processes can be tailored to the demands of each play that we produce. They are designed to support young people by challenging them to deepen their understanding of one another and their engagement with Shakespeare's play. In engaging the young people in the process of “looking for Shakespeare,” we have recreated some of the conditions that mirror Shakespeare's creative process. As an actor, shareholder and playwright working with a company of players, their relationship between script and improvised performance was fluid and dynamic. The young people from culturally diverse backgrounds can return Shakespeare's gaze, ‘colonized’ Shakespeare for their own purposes instead of being ‘colonized’ in his name.
Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings
Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction to Wilson's Political Thought Part 3 Progress and the Organic State Chapter 4 The State (chapters 1, 2, 13, 16) Chapter 5 "Christ's Army" Chapter 6 "Christian Progress" Part 7 Political Liberty and the Scope and Ends of Government Chapter 8 "Socialism and Democracy" Chapter 9 "A Calendar of Great Americans" Chapter 10 "Address on Thomas Jefferson" Chapter 11 "The Authors and Signers of the Declaration of Independence" Chapter 12 The New Freedom (chapters 1, 2) Part 13 Institutional Reform Chapter 14 "Cabinet Government in the United States" Chapter 15 Congressional Government (chapter 2 & conclusion) Chapter 16 Constitutional Government in the United States (chapters 3, 8) Chapter 17 "Wanted - A Party" Part 18 Political and Administrative Leadership Chapter 19 "Leaders of Men" Chapter 20 "The Study of Administration" Part 21 Foreign Policy Chapter 22 "War Message to Congress" Chapter 23 "Fourteen Points" Part 24 Appendix A. Chronology of Wilson's Academic Work and Other Selected Events Part 25 Appendix B. Selected Bibliography