I’ve had some profound insights as I reflected on my experiences thus far with Shakespeare, so I thought I would share them here. They are personal to me, but if you are seeking out your own Shakespeare, I encourage you to ask yourself these questions after awhile. It may bring your own abstract ideas into focus.

“Reflect on your own encounters with Shakespeare leading up to and within the first two weeks of this course. What have you learned about Shakespeare? What discoveries have you made?”

I never knew Shakespeare until this course. That is, to say, I’ve read several plays of his, but avoided reading Shakespeare whenever possible because I could not understand the language of the day. I didn’t understand why Shakespeare was read and revered all these centuries later. The first assignment, to write my own words about Shakespeare’s words, was confusing and disconcerting at first. Then, as I thought about it, I began to write, and I began to appreciate the importance of first words, and I began to appreciate Shakespeare. Still, I struggled with the language while attempting to read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. I was so determined, but I could not see the forest for the trees. I got caught up on deciphering the meaning of every word I didn’t know that I lost sight of what was happening. After considering the guest lecturers’ input that Shakespeare should be spoken aloud and performed, I decided to watch a play on YouTube. There, I was able to see the emotion, the fury, the desperation, the love, the youth – everything I had been missing by concentrating on the words. As I followed the plot and characters with more ease, I noticed that I could appreciate those Shakespearean words for their beauty and eloquence, for which I never could before.

“Write about the work you have done for this course. Include one or more links to examples of your work. You can link to work in the discussion forum or work that you’ve done elsewhere on the web (videos you’ve made, blog posts you’ve written, Tweets, Facebook threads you’ve contributed to, etc.) Reflect briefly on the what, why, and how of the work that you’ve done.”

*Note that even if you are not involved with Coursera or the Shakespeare in Community MOOC (both of which I highly recommend), you can still get involved in discussions on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #MOOCspeare and the account @hackshakespeare. You will indeed find lively discussions from others around the world!

I have a literary blog where I post my own writing, reviews, critical analyses, and various musings. I decided to use this outlet to express my thoughts on my experience with Shakespeare. It has worked delightfully well because it is a medium I am comfortable with and can write at any length about any discoveries I have made. My blog, http://www.literaryfaerie.com, also links to my Tumber account, “Rebecca’s Tumblr, Yay!”, my personal facebook page, and my twitter account, @literaryfaerie, thus my audience is expanded beyond my blog. When I first set out to write my ideas on my blog, I introduced the course and invited readers to participate in the various prompts and experience Shakespeare for themselves. I have included #MOOCspeare as a tag for each post. I will continue to post in this manner, but I would also like to try the “twitter essay” and respond in the discussion forum more often, as I have not posted much in the forum as of yet. My work has reflected on my experiences, frustrations, insights, and creativity while discussing Shakespeare. I am a writer at heart, so my blog posts read as stories, I believe. Each post on http://www.literaryfaerie.com regarding this course has Shakespeare in the title, is accessible on the first page, and is tagged with #MOOCspeare. As I said, these posts are also linked to twitter, so you may find them there, as well, although I don’t know how to link specific tweets.

“What are your goals for the second half of this MOOC. What conversations do you hope to have? What do you hope to build, make, write?”

My goals initially were to understand the language of Shakespeare, so I could read his work and be part of the academic world that hails Shakespeare, instead of feeling like a blasphemer for disliking reading his plays. My goals have since changed. I understand Shakespeare to be like a foreign language to me – it will take years of study for the language to become second nature to me, for me not to need to look up nearly every word or phrase. This is not necessary to understand Shakespeare’s plays at their essence, only to dissect and analyze them. First, I need to develop an appreciation for these works. I need to look past the words to the sights, sounds, actions, emotions, and characters of the plays to really FEEL the story. Only then is my mind free to hone in on the lyricism and beauty of the words that are spoken. Plays were meant to be performed. Honestly, every play I’ve ever seen, I enjoyed immensely because of the immersive atmosphere. So, instead of “reading” Shakespeare, I am going to seek out performances of each of the plays we’re studying, and then, if I need a reference, I will look to my books and other resources. I think I’ve found this is the way to My Shakespeare.

I refrained from answering the latter part of that question, mostly because at this point, I don’t know. I’m just excited to have finally found a way to relate to Shakespeare. 🙂