Scholars, Questions, and Editions

Gender and Sexuality

How does having strong, opinionated women change a play being written when women were believed to be inferior to me and with a position of silence to them? How does the balance of power between Rosalind and Orlando affect an interpretation of the play? How does sexual innuendos change the readings of otherwise benign passages? What does the queer situation add to the play?

Our edition intends to discuss the gender questions of women's roles and the balance of power, but not to enter into a conversation about sexuality or homosexuality. We felt these were not appropriate for a middle school edition. The conversations surrounding gender will focus on the subjects which will allow students to see the complications of gender without bringing the conversation to explicit materials.

Social Class

What separates social classes? Does class invade the pastoral? Which classes are represented within the As You Like It as a whole and in the pastoral in specific? What role does the pastoral play in the relations with other of the same and opposite genders?

In creating a middle school edition, we're looking to simplify the questions to ones appropriate for the age group. We intend to discuss court and the social classes by looking at the characters and time period to give the students a taste of conversation surrounding the issues of social class.

Historical Context

When was As You Like It written? When was it first performed? Is the poem "As the Dial Hand Tells O'er" a missing epilogue for the play?

To address the historical context, we would probably go to the introduction of the Arden Edition of As You Like It in order to provide a framework for the story in history. We would include a brief biography of Shakespeare's life and what theater was like at the time of his plays. We would not address these specific questions as in depth because middle schoolers may find it harder to follow and a bit confusing.

Theatricality and Portrayal

How do the differences between what Rosalind says and what she does nuance the play? How do scenes like Act IV scene i and their portrayal change the meaning and trajectory of the play? Is the spoken or performed more important?

These questions really only influence the way we handle Act IV scene i. Within this scene, there are some portions that we feel middle school students should not be interpreting. We intend to heavily address the portrayal questions, especially homoerotic suggesting events.

Editions

For young students, is it appropriate to use editions such as "No Fear Shakespeare" to help in reading the language? Or do you have students read the original text because there is a difference in the power of the words?

This dilemma applies directly to our edition because it is geared towards a middle school audience. We feel like we are the ones tackling this question because it is our decision as to whether or not we simplify or keep the Shakespeare's language. Our decision with regards to this question is that we want to keep as much as the students would be able to handle and simplify other parts to increase comprehension.

Much of these point we intend to address in the inter-act sections of our editions. These sections provide context and allow students to brainstorm their own insight. We hope in these sections that we can give students and insight into the time period, culture, or play which they can use to push their own learning with the help of open ended questions.

Bibliography

Franco, Caitilin, and Joseph Scotese. "Teacher to Teacher: What Value Do Side-by-Side or Parallel-Text Editions Such as No Fear Shakespeare or Shakespeare Made Easy Have in a Classroom?." The English Journal, 99.1 (2009). 33-4. Print.

Gay, Penny. "Women and eloquence in Shakespeare and Austen." Shakespeare, 6.4 (2010). 463-77. Print.
Hattaway, Michael. "Dating As You Like It, Epilogues and Prayers, and the Problems of 'As the Dial Hand  Tells O'er'." Shakespeare Quarterly, 60.2 (2009). 154-167. Print.

Kronenfield, Judy. "Social Rnak and the Pastoral Ideals of As You Like It." Shakespeare Quarterly, 29.3 (1978). 333-48. Print.

Khan, Michael. "A Note for Directors of As You Like It." Shakespeare Newsletter, 62.3 (2013). 117. Print.

Quarmby, Kevina. "'As the cony that you see': Rosalind's risque rabbits in As You Like It." Shakespeare, 6.2 (2010). 153-64. Print. 
Ronk, Martha. "Locating the Visual in As You Like It." Shakespeare Quarterly, 53.2 (2001). 255-76. Print.

Stirm, Jan. "'For Solace a Twinne-like Sister': Teaching Themes of Sisterhood in As You Like it and Beyond." Shakespeare Quarterly, 47.4 (1996). 374-86. Print.

Tracy, Ryan. "The unqueering of As You Like It." The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, 17.4 (2010). 26-8. Print

Audience and Edition: Post #3

Play: As You Like It

Audience: Middle School Students & Teacher Editions 

Editions and the Reasoning Behind

First off, we are really excited to work on the production of a middle school version of As You Like It. We hope that this edition will allow students to encounter and appreciate Shakespeare at a younger age. In order for this edition to be successful, we have planned out two different versions of this edition that we will provide to the middle school classroom--the student edition, and the teacher edition.

Student--The middle school edition of As You Like It will be edited for simple language, something that is not so foreign to the young adolescent who will be encountering this play. Obviously, at middle school age, the entire, unedited text might be a bit daunting and difficult to encounter. So, we plan on editing the play for simplicity, while maintaining the main storyline (similar to what directors do when choosing what to include in their rendition of the play, but on a greater level). In order to make the play more accessible and understandable, we were thinking that at the end of each act we would include excepts about the life of Shakespeare, basic information about the court system, influence of Shakespeare's language, and illustrations. Naturally the items listed above would go in corresponding places so as the acts referencing the court system will be followed by the excerpts about the court system. Similarly, another thing that we are considering having after the acts are a few questions that encourage critical thinking about specific aspects of occurrences that happened within the acts. We feel that this will provide middle school students with an opportunity to develop and utilize critical thinking skills, for such will benefit them throughout their lives. We also talked about emphasizing that this is a play and is meant to be acted out, not simply read. We also hope that this edition will help students to be excited about the arts and humanities at an early age.

Teacher--The text of the play will be the same as found in the student's edition. We will do this to avoid confusion when teacher and students and studying/discussing the play together (for example synchronized pagination will be a definite bonus for the teachers). However, the teachers edition will have a more in depth, but not overwhelming, insight into the historical context of the play that will be included after the play. That way the teacher can choose how much and what she will share with the students. We also considered having more questions in this edition that the teacher could use for class discussion or as possible test questions. She will this be able to engage her different classes with appropriate material suited to their needs and abilities. 

Annotations

"As You Like It"

Act I Scene iii

The scene: Rosalind and Celia have just returned from the wrestling match and Celia tries to enter into Rosalind's confidence. Duke Fredrick enters and banishes Rosalind.

Middle school

A middle school edition of this scene would face the most dramatic change from the scholarly explosion of footnotes and historical context that is the Arden. Although, it may actually look similar if you squinted at it—because, page for page, the text of the Middle School edition of As You Like It would occupy about the top half of the page, while the bottom would contain auxiliary information like definitions, pictures, plot clarifications, or the occasional contextual note about Shakespeare (if it may prove interesting or beneficial to a middle school audience.) The format of this edition is similar to the Family Editions of the LDS scriptures, which endeavor to translate the sometimes confusing language of the ancient scriptures to modern day speech as objectively as possible. For example, in this particular scene, the lines 115-120 describe Rosalind suggesting that to disguise oneself as a man is as easy as putting on a mask and adorning some cruel weaponry. This is a vital moment of the play, but Shakespeare’s particular verbiage (phrases such as, “…that I did suit me all points like a man,” and “that do outface it with their semblances”) may easily mask the essential action without further defining certain words—“all points” and “semblances”. The greatest fear here is that you give the youngest and most impressionable audience a biased reading of the story, but to a degree, this is inescapable. I personally believe that the value of coming away with a firm grasp on a story and a connection to characters outranks that of preserving a perfectly objective experience—which cannot exist in reality besides—at the middle school level.

High school

For starters, As You Like It annotated for a high school audience would not have footnotes that took up one-half to three-quarters of a page. It would probably frighten those poor adolescents. A secondary level edition would of course include, but not overwhelmingly so, notes to phrases or words with which students would be generally unfamiliar, providing a brief definition. The primary purpose of these annotations would be to provide clarity of the text and help with overall comprehension. An edition for this audience might occasionally include a culture references or two where pertinent, such as an explanation on the court system. However, this could also be included in the teachers edition of the text and not necessarily in the students edition. 

Undergraduate (not at BYU)

In an undergraduate edition of the text, more supplementary material would be provided for the students. Similarly, there would most likely be a considerable increase in the number and depth of footnotes and annotations. While much scholarly material would still be withheld, there would more likely be allusions to double meanings (perhaps including the more complex issues of gender, cultural connotations of words and events, as well as connections to the overarching themes that the play seems to address). Annotations to this particular scene could include potential allusions to Queen Elizabeth's famous speech to the Troops at Tilbury, and the historical implications of connecting Rosalind to Elizabeth. I also felt that our edition's inclusion of Rosalind's potential social commentary on the "masculine masquerade"that see is assuming via her disguise also would fit this reading audience. However, I do feel that there would be less overall annotations than our Arden Shakespeare edition.

Graduate

For a graduate edition, the annotations could have several focuses taken individually or collectively. Annotation materials may include historical parallels, such as banishing several dukes and earls from court; intertexual connections to literature of the time period, such as when Viola in Twelfth Night decides to cross dress as her brother; and cultural context, such as the inner workings of life at court and courtly intrigue. The annotations might also take on different lenses. The annotations may look at the power dynamics between Duke Fredrick, Celia, and Rosalind which occur from the threatened banishment, Celia's threat to run away, and the responses from each threat. Annotations could focus on the feminist angle--what does the banishment and Celia's disobedience to her father say about women, their role, and powers. Overall, the edition's annotations would include similar aspects to the undergraduate edition, but would go to a much deeper depth.