Help: "King Lear" (1 Viewer)

[hYperTrOphY]

Many "King Lear" questions about about proving how a text doesn't have a use-by date, and that it can be still relevant many centuries after it was written. However, if I am doing the Jacobean reading I have troubles answering the actual question. This is because writing about the Jacobean reading and a Jacobean production doesn't prove that the text has continued throughout time. When I talk about the domestic reading of the play I am able to say how even though this reading is almost 400 years later, contemporary audiences can still gain relevenace etc.
So, how do I tackle these types of questions in relation to the Jacobean element of my answer?

 

[SmileyCam]

Jacobean??

 

[freakcore]

When you talk about “domestic” I assume you are discussing a Family/Psychological reading which could work well using the Jacobean reading as a flip side to the age of the second reading. Using the Jacobean reading as a basis for your argument, you can set yourself up to prove the changes that the social conscience and context can have on the interpretation of any given work.
Taking this stance you can use the Jacobean reading to show where the readings began in terms of focus and social beliefs and reactions, and you can use the second to show how they have been reinterpreted by the modern audience due to new social contexts and beliefs. This is therefore proving the lack of a used by date through the assertion that the text while being relevant to a past audience is revitalised by recontextualisation at the hands of a modern audience. As when something is evolutionary, continually changing in relation to the modern people it can not ever be out of date.
Other than that, I can not imagine how you can represent the Jacobean reading as modern, you can only use it to implement a more in depth discussion of the changing nature of the work.
…..sorry if that’s no help to you. Its just how I thought of it and ill be the first to admit that i am often incorrect.

 

[hYperTrOphY]

When you talk about “domestic” I assume you are discussing a Family/Psychological reading which could work well using the Jacobean reading as a flip side to the age of the second reading. Using the Jacobean reading as a basis for your argument, you can set yourself up to prove the changes that the social conscience and context can have on the interpretation of any given work.
Taking this stance you can use the Jacobean reading to show where the readings began in terms of focus and social beliefs and reactions, and you can use the second to show how they have been reinterpreted by the modern audience due to new social contexts and beliefs. This is therefore proving the lack of a used by date through the assertion that the text while being relevant to a past audience is revitalised by recontextualisation at the hands of a modern audience. As when something is evolutionary, continually changing in relation to the modern people it can not ever be out of date.
Other than that, I can not imagine how you can represent the Jacobean reading as modern, you can only use it to implement a more in depth discussion of the changing nature of the work.
…..sorry if that’s no help to you. Its just how I thought of it and ill be the first to admit that i am often incorrect.

lol, nah that was helpful. Actually, the way you have explained it is the approach I did take when I did a practise question. However, the reason I was a bit worried was because throughout the jacobean part of the response it didn't seem like I was directly answering the question.

 

[exa_boi87]

I havent done alot of research into "Jacobean", however if its anything like "Aristotelean" in that it refers to the elizabethan period, I use the interpretation as an example of how "base" values and motifs inherent in the original context are carried through to a contemporary interpretation. When I say "baser" motifs im referring to the binay oppositions Chaos Vs Order etc ..

 

[goan_crazy]

Research the Elizabethan, Jacobean history aspect of Lear
Google is a great place to start.

A paragraph is fine to establish historical context...its not the central concern and there won't be a whole essay on the Jacobean era...

 

[silvermoon]

If you wrote a whole essay on just an aristotelean reading than no, you haven't answered the question. but you must have covered more readings than that in your course surely? you need to be able to show that composers are able to change 'Lear' to suit their individual contexts: in terms of this, you could write on Nahum Tate's revionist ending that was shown during the Jacobean period (remember, in Shakespeare's day basically no-one ever saw his actual play, they only saw Tate's version). You could compare this to a modern production (just make one up if you had to) --> people got balsted last year for not being able to make the play relevant to their own time.
other things you could look at (for context):
~ Brook: nihilist/absurdist reading -- coming off the back of the world wars and the cold war
~ Eyre: psychological/domestic/feminist -- Freudian interpretation reflects modern philosophies, as does the feminist reading. the domestic reading has great potential to be related to (20th and (21st audiences and the breakdown of the nuclear family
~ my mind has gone blank on the guy's name, but there was a Russian one that was a Marxist reading -- links there are obvious

 

[goan_crazy]

I'm doing Brook's nihilstic and eyres family

 

[silvermoon]

last year i talked about, oh, let's see *tries to remember*, uh, i think it was:
- revisionist (Tate)
- absurdist/nihilist (Brook)
- feminist/domestic (Eyre, and a bit on Freudian but it wasn't so relevant, just a few sentences)
- christian (Blessed - damn i hated this one, so boring. so i didn't spend as much time as i should have, it was just too awful)

 

[silvermoon]

oh, and all had to be referenced into modern context

 

[hYperTrOphY]

If you wrote a whole essay on just an aristotelean reading than no, you haven't answered the question. but you must have covered more readings than that in your course surely? you need to be able to show that composers are able to change 'Lear' to suit their individual contexts: in terms of this, you could write on Nahum Tate's revionist ending that was shown during the Jacobean period (remember, in Shakespeare's day basically no-one ever saw his actual play, they only saw Tate's version). You could compare this to a modern production (just make one up if you had to) --> people got balsted last year for not being able to make the play relevant to their own time.
other things you could look at (for context):
~ Brook: nihilist/absurdist reading -- coming off the back of the world wars and the cold war
~ Eyre: psychological/domestic/feminist -- Freudian interpretation reflects modern philosophies, as does the feminist reading. the domestic reading has great potential to be related to (20th and (21st audiences and the breakdown of the nuclear family
~ my mind has gone blank on the guy's name, but there was a Russian one that was a Marxist reading -- links there are obvious

No, I didn't only talk about the Jacobean reading of the play. In the practise question I was referring to I also wrote about the domestic reading (using Eyre's production). However, what I was saying is that through the Jacobean part of my answer I didn't feel as though I was able to directly answer the question.

 

[silvermoon]

No, I didn't only talk about the Jacobean reading of the play. In the practise question I was referring to I also wrote about the domestic reading (using Eyre's production). However, what I was saying is that through the Jacobean part of my answer I didn't feel as though I was able to directly answer the question.

look, i see your problem. the only way i can think of to get around it is to talk about how, altough the text we study know is as shakespeare intended it, the version that Jacobean audiences saw was not --> after only one showing Shakespeare's Lear was taken off the stage and Nahum Tate's revisionist Lear shown instead so that the sense of poetic justice, neo-classicist as it is, was created - which suited the Jacobean context. That's how i wold approach it to answer the question

 

[Skryp]

Talking from experience guys...your best option is to have at least a page of knowledge on every reading you know...You should have at least 5+ readings on it and know them back to front...There is a very strong chance that there will be a question on this field so know it well my friends!

Last year I can recall using..

- Feminist
- Jacobean
- Aristotlean
- Elizabethan & A Couple of others I don't remember haha...But! There was one more that pretty much made my arguments...that was...

- The perspective of Georg Gottfried Gervinus which was German Philosophical Criticism..

^ This was the argument that I chiefly believed in so I used it as often as possible because I fully understood it, was passionate about it and thus, could communicate it to the best of my ability. Make sure there are a few readings that you can write pages on and then a couple of others that you can just throw in!

Best of luck everyone...I know how hard it can be but front up like you're going into battle and I'm sure you'll get everything you deserve.

 

[serge]

You should have at least 5+ readings

You could MENTION 5 readings, but there's not point going into detail
about them, you have way too much to answer to do 5 readings in depth

 

[SiReN]

can somebody PLEASEEE clear me up, i have had many notes about readings, themes, productions etcc thrown at me.. but never told a structure or how/what to write iin the essay, we have had practice essays but its all over the joint..

SOO can ANYONE put up a structure or tell me what we actually write in the essay!!??

thanks

 

[serge]

dont trust structures that ppl post on BOS

you want to be original... if 30,000 people do exactly
the same thing, they wont be happy with you being 30,001

 

[-gopo-]

i wanted to ask if they ask you how would you stage a production of king lear, would you only include one reading because you could only have one reading of the play from your own view point

 

[kami]

i wanted to ask if they ask you how would you stage a production of king lear, would you only include one reading because you could only have one reading of the play from your own view point

You would still discuss other readings I believe - for example you'd be discussing/evaluating the feminist or nihilist readings as opposed to your own reading of the text and its reasons(academic reasons) for developing

 

[l-mercedes-l]

can somebody PLEASEEE clear me up, i have had many notes about readings, themes, productions etcc thrown at me.. but never told a structure or how/what to write iin the essay, we have had practice essays but its all over the joint..

SOO can ANYONE put up a structure or tell me what we actually write in the essay!!??

thanks

Hey i totally understand how youre feeling. i was so confused so i asked my teacher coz im never one to hold back on stupid questions. His response was incredable... i thought i was going to get blasted for asking 'what do i write about kinglear?' ...

Heres the thing.

Say for example u think the play is a family/psychological drama.
Why do you think that?
Firstly what have you read that supports a family drama reading. (eg scholars like bradley think that Lear is too complex as a whole play so therefore directors tend to break it down and focus on one issue and u can say they might choose the family drama POV as it is essential to understanding the play) Acknowledge that this has influenced your view.
What productions have you seen that really dramatise the family relationships (the 1983 Granada production is good for family relationships for example. This informs my view that it is a family drama because Lear cries when his daughters reject him prior to scene 3, he is hurt that his family has rejected him when they told him they loved him). Again make sure u recognise that this production influences your view.
If they ask u to talk about an imaginary production/your production u might argue that i think its is a family drama (for the reasons above) and would dramatise more havily the family aspects and downplay elements like Kingship for example as it is less relevent to the modern experience.

******So basically the BOS just wants to see you've read widely and watched a number of productions and realise that they impact on the way YOU view the play*****


Studying shakespeare takes all the fun out of it

 

[SiReN]

/\/\ thankyou l-mercedes-l