Melbourne Friday 26th November I enjoyed it because I understood it.

A soap opera death and destruction. King Lear: CLARITY AND CONFUSION

Sydney Morning Herald September 28, 2004: Confusion.

The Bard is being bastardised by madcap interpretations.

Teachers struggle with how to teachShakespeare in the 21st century.

Students wrestle with nihilism, and Freudian concepts in King Lear.

Sydney Morning Herald September 2004 (More confusion)

Many 2004 year 12 HSC students had no idea.

They thought the red walls in a movie version symbolised communism.

They based their feminist interpretationon Cordelias leadership of the French army.

Sydney Morning Herald September 2004 (Even more confusion)Many HSC students dont read the play.

Nicky"turns off in class" when her teacher explains King Lear's bewildering "isms".

"Because everyone's dead that's nihilism, apparently," Nicky says.

We get assignments asking us to explain how this version is Marxist or feminist.

The problem is we don't know what Marxism is.

Sydney Morning Herald September 2004 (Utter Confusion!!)Despite spending $15,000 a year students get extra tutoring for King Lear.

One private boys school has 15 year 12 boys getting outside tutoring for English.

I tried an Oedipal reading but my friends did the Marxist interpretation.

They said the play is a fight between the proletariat and the ruling class."

Confused utterances: Jean Luc Godards King Lear (with Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Julie Delpy)

Godard signed the contract for the film on a napkin.

Both Mailer and Kurosawa wanted to rework Lear.

Mailer was to play King Lear but walked off the set.

Goon to the rescue: Peter Sellers as King Lear

Godard hired Sellers to replace Norman Mailer.

Peter Sellers had performed King Lear many times. Godards King Lear has no similarity to Shakespeares. Godard had never read King Lear. Godard had only read the first and last three pages.

This entire film is Godard trying to get to page four of King Lear.

A little Clarity: Todays Timeline.

1) Why? Mastery.

2) How? From Inside out.

3) What? Ins and Outs.

Resources.

5.Assignments.

6.Assessment.

What does King Lear teach?Click to add text.- ---

Expressive and Explosive.Provocative and Profound. Terrible and Tragic.

Why study with King Lear?Click to add text.

Hidden in history?Thick with theory? Dense with discrimination?

A lesson of life and death!Elizabethan Existentialism!An exploration of the human condition!

How should we be taught by King Lear? Does a masterful work teach itself?

How do we assist understanding?

Can we approach Lear inside out?

What can be elicited from Lear?

How may Lear be viewed?

In exposing Lear we obscure Lear.

In obscuring Lear we expose ourselves.

Subject matter (Internals and externals)Content of the play.

Textual details.

Background information.The basics facilitate.

The details enrich.

Context explains.

Elizabethan backgroundHistory behind the play:

Lightweight James inherits the throne. The Gunpowder Plot..

Looking back at the betrayer Essex, and treasonable Raleigh.

Jamess parents were immoral like Edmund - a character debate. ?

Does James deserve the throne?The Politics of the piece:

A shaky, safe succession after a long peace.

Religious & Civil Conflict abroad and in England.

Assassination attempts on Jamess life.

Cultural and religious background.Cultural factors:

The Great Chain of Being, The Resurgence of Nature.

Family and Monarchy;Sucession and Inheritance,

The Ethics of Faithfulness,Treason and Betrayal.

Religious questions:

James the Protestant maintains the status quo.

Shakespeare explores the pre-Christian world:

Moral and Metaphysical Questioning.

Traditional Shakespearean ContentCharacters: grand contrasts.

Places: false society, true nature.

Events: A thematic scheme.

Speeches: profound insights.Dramatic Conventions.

Language.

Themes.

Images.

Events and themes.

The courtly test of love.

The ejection of the faithful.

The disposessed wandering .

Disguised guardians.

The wicked seeking power.

Things fall apart. Chaos reigns.

Truth and Good triumph.Flattery, Repudiation.

Betrayal, Despair.

Fidelity, Love, Charity.

Ambition, Pragmatism.

Madness, Horror, Grief.

Self-defeating Chaos.

Contrasting domains.The civilised Court.

The wild, natural Heath.

The terrible Battlefield.

Flattery, insincerity and lying.

Brute truth, harsh reality.

Human (and divine) horror unmasked

Parallels: Characters and situation.

Lear and the Fool- folly and wisdom.Lear and Gloucester - unjust suffering.Lear and Edgar- familial injustice.Edgar and Cordelia- parental inversions.Cordelia and Kent- suffering for fidelity.Edgar and Kent- disguised loyalty.

Juxtapositions: character and virtue.

Cordelia and sisters- fidelity.Edmund and Edgar- goodness.Albany and Cornwall- pragmatism.Edmund and Kent- integrity.France and Burgundy- true love.Oswald and Kent- honesty.

InterpretationPower.

Gender.

Family, insanity.

Extremity.

Language games, make believe.

Marxism.

Feminism.

Psychoanalysis.

Existentialism.

Deconstruction.

Tragedy and Irony

Basic Ironies:

The faithful are rejected.

The truth is disbelieved.

The true disguise themselves.

The wise are foolish, the foolish wise.

Tragedy of Lear, Edgar, Edmund:

Greatness: Majestic or Base.

Hubris: Arrogant or Scheming.

The Fall: Rejection or Discovery.

The Calamity: Death takes All.

Intertextuality: The ousted ruler with daughter.

As You Like It.

The Tempest.

Coriolanus.

Trouble for ruler and daughter.

Iphigenia in Tauris.

The daughter of Jephta.

Sleeping Beauty.

Literary parallels.Trouble for a displaced ruler.

Nebuchadnezzar.

Gilgamesh.

Endgames.

The general in his labyrinth..

Favouritism and succession.

The parable of the vineyard.

Folk tale: The Chiefs 3 sons.

The chariot of Apollo.

Shaka Zulu.

The Pitfalls and perils of analogies:

Historical parallels:

King David and Absolom.

Richard I in exile.

Crazy Emperor Claudius.

Insane king Louis.

The last Chinese Emperor.

Contemporary parallels:

The Nepalese dynasty.

Insane ex-dictators.

The man who was Governor.

The loyal Secretary of State.

Front bench and Treasurer.

Taughtology: Are we avoiding what we should be attempting, OR; are we attempting what we should avoid?

Contemporising. e.g. Find current examples?

Broadening focus e.g. Look at sexism, family?

Going into detail e.g. Contrast language of Lear and Edmund?Prerequisites:

Dramatise: Keep Lear alive.

Encourage multiple visions.

Link Lear to experience. Background research.

Lear Resources:King Lear websites-see additional handout.

Arden/Longman Ed.Heinemann Edition.Subtitled BBC DVD.Boris Pasternack film.VATE Insights notes.Royal Shakespeare Company materials.Longman/ Macmillian Learning Materials, Critical Texts see recent catalogues.

Creative AssignmentsRe-contextualise Excerpts

(beginning, middle, end)Rewriting: happy ending

Visualisation: powerpnt. scenes with quote captions

Audio sampling: (a form of summarising.)

Imaginative writing

Cordelia on the couch.

Lear in the asylum.

A Press conference.

Setting a scene to music.

Assignments: The play in context.Research projects: Looking back:- Elizabeth I, James I;- Guy Fawkes, Darnley.Looking further back:- Mary Queen of Scots,- Bloody Mary,- Henry VIII;-The Wars of the Roses.

Embedded intertextuality(Shakespeares worldview and his sources.)

Comparisons between King Lear and other Shakespearean plays, his antecedents and sources.

- Biblical parallels.- Arcadia, Holinshed.

Assignments: Views and Values.Historical analysis:

Social structures monarchy.Social structures women.Social structures outcasts.Social structures insanity.

Contemporary society:

Textual renditions of insanity.

Nuclear families and conflict (R.D. Laing)

Ageism and Sexism.

Final Examination Assesment.

Embedding theory within the text.

Ensuring adequate textual knowledge and reference.

Ensuring insight.Generating a holistic perspective of the text.

Engaging with the fundamental ideas.

Generating an aesthetic understanding.

Essay Topics and Textual Excerpts for Analysis:

Essay Topics:Lear discovers his true self on the heath.

The minor characters often upstage the primary characters.

Lear is more sinned against than sinning. Lear deserves his fate.Some Textual Excerpts: