University of Colorado ENGL3000 Shakespeare Plays Assignment

Description

In this assignment, you will use several online resources to investigate the historical context of Shakespeare’s world. This assignment will require you to organize and explain the information you gather from two sites: Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). Through this combination of geographical and biographical research, you will construct a “mini-encyclopedia” about a place and person in early modern London, where Shakespeare lived and worked from the 1580s until his retirement in 1613.

To get started, watch the instructional video entitled “Mini-Encyclopedia Instructions,” on D2L. Then follow these steps to complete your assignment:

Navigate to the Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) database via the following link (http://shalt.dmu.ac.uk////index.html (Links to an external site.)). From the home page, click on the “Locations” tab. This will take you to the ShaLT interactive map, which shows the locations of important sites of early modern theater.

You will see that ShaLT provides a legend describing what the various icons on its map stand for. Pick ONE location on the map, click on it, and read all of the articles associated with it. Be sure to explore the pictures the ShaLT page provides as well. Take detailed notes as you read.

Note the people ShaLT mentions in their articles and their relationship to the location of your choosing. You will then pick ONE person mentioned in the article, and look them up in the Dictionary of National Biography (http://www.oxforddnb.com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/ (Links to an external site.)).

Read and take careful notes on the person’s biography, focusing especially on their significance within the context of Shakespeare’s life and times and early modern theatre generally.

 

HINT: Sometimes you learn more if you pick a person who is less famous. As tempting as it might be to research Queen Elizabeth, keep in mind that her DNB entry will be massive and will not necessarily allow you to fulfill the goals of the assignment.

HINT #2: Don’t wait until the last second to do your ShaLT research! The website will become bogged down if too many of you use page at the same time. If for some reason you are unable to use ShaLT, please consult the Map of Early Modern London to complete your geographical/building site research: https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/home.htm (Links to an external site.)

After you have completed the reading and research you are being asked to do on each site, answer the following questions in 3-4 paragraphs:

Why is this building/site important? What is its relationship to the political, religious, or cultural context of early modern London?

How was this site important theatrically? Who performed there, and what types of plays or productions were held there?

Who was the person mentioned in ShaLT that you chose to research further? What did you learn about him or her through the DNB? What was his or her importance to early modern theatre, and early modern England generally?

Finally, you should conclude with a brief reflection on the process of conducting this research and working with these online tools. Was any part of the process more interesting than others? Do these online tools work effectively, or did you run into problems/difficulties you did not anticipate?