I will mold their minds! Ahahaha!
Since Ginger was at a conference (hmmm...I wonder if she and Fern are at the same one), I got to teachy Macbeth today. And I do believe I've topped my "Mark Antony is a douchebag" comment from last year. (To be fair, he is.)
I spent the lecture talking about how gender gets treated in the play, especially as shown in the HORRIFYING FEAR OF FEMALE POWER, and the way that the Elizabethans (though by this time they're Jamesians, but that sounds stupid) were filled with anxiety over motherhood (breastfeeding, infanticide, miscarriages and stillbirths, maternal power, etc). I got to take a couple of shots at Henry VIII which was also pretty fun.
We moved over to representations of masculinity which makes up the majority of the play. If I had a dollar for every time "man" or one its cognates is used, I could go out to eat for a month. My last point was bringing up the idea that Macbeth is one long psychoanalytic exploration. Unlike most of the other his villains, Shakespeare doesn't use sex or sexuality as a code for Macbeth's evil--think Aaron, Richard III, Edmund, Claudius, etc. Is there a reason for that? Is there a reason why Lady Macbeth is always bringing up his manhood and virility (or lack thereof)? Why is Macbeth so touchy and concerned about anyone questioning his masculinity? I let the class go with the line, "And don't forget, class, stabbing is another form of penetration. Have a great weekend."
Also in my lecture I got to bring up Girlfriend in the Refrigerator Syndrome, Gargoyles, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. In all, a good day.
I spent the lecture talking about how gender gets treated in the play, especially as shown in the HORRIFYING FEAR OF FEMALE POWER, and the way that the Elizabethans (though by this time they're Jamesians, but that sounds stupid) were filled with anxiety over motherhood (breastfeeding, infanticide, miscarriages and stillbirths, maternal power, etc). I got to take a couple of shots at Henry VIII which was also pretty fun.
We moved over to representations of masculinity which makes up the majority of the play. If I had a dollar for every time "man" or one its cognates is used, I could go out to eat for a month. My last point was bringing up the idea that Macbeth is one long psychoanalytic exploration. Unlike most of the other his villains, Shakespeare doesn't use sex or sexuality as a code for Macbeth's evil--think Aaron, Richard III, Edmund, Claudius, etc. Is there a reason for that? Is there a reason why Lady Macbeth is always bringing up his manhood and virility (or lack thereof)? Why is Macbeth so touchy and concerned about anyone questioning his masculinity? I let the class go with the line, "And don't forget, class, stabbing is another form of penetration. Have a great weekend."
Also in my lecture I got to bring up Girlfriend in the Refrigerator Syndrome, Gargoyles, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. In all, a good day.