21L.015 INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA STUDIES
The lecture will focus on the transition from print to digital forms of one author in particular -- William Shakespeare, and will deal with the early printed editions that lie behind contemporary collected or edited editions, the questions raised by the performance of these playscripts as they migrate through the media of stage, film, video, and the use of digital technologies to create new ways to access and experience Shakespeare.
Students should become familiar with Shakespeare resources on the Web by browsing the suggested sites listed below, and should study the scenes from Hamlet and King Lear also listed below in folio, quarto and facsimile form. (It is not necessary to read the whole play in either case.)
For each scene, students should become familiar with:
In addition, it would be helpful to watch at least two film versions of Hamlet 1.4 and 1.5 and King Lear 5.3.262-end, available from the film office 14N430.
Though it has great potential, the Web is in the early stages of trying to handle the complexity of multi-versioned texts -- much less multimedia Shakespeare. The following sites will help you to compare these versions, and at this stage probably the best starting place is Michael Best's transcriptions of Hamlet -- they are linked to one another and to the University of Pennsylvania images. Read the Hylton text first, then use Best to compare versions. I'm including "back-up" sites just in case, general sites to explore, and also a non-Shakespearean archival site or two.
Facsimiles of early Shakespeare texts held in the Furness Library at the University of Pennsylvania. The King Lear texts include the 1619 quarto. While this is technically an "early" or pre-1623 quarto, it is largely a reprint of the First Quarto of 1608. The First Folio Project includes, to date, facsimiles of the King Lear and Hamlet pages of the First Folio, from the Furness copy as well as the prefatory pages..
Other (optional) Shakespeare sites you might find interesting:
For Hamlet Q2 and F you can also look at:
Texts of Hamlet based on First Folio and Second Quarto, with variants indicated by brackets.
The texts at the following site are a bit more difficult to use than Michael Best's (The Virginia sites are also probably more easily reached from Best's page than by using these urls):
University of Virginia E-Text Library
Hamlet First Quarto Transcription
GENERAL SHAKESPEARE SITES
It may be easier to follow links from Michael Best's site or the First Folio site.
FILMOGRAPHY