Self Evaluation

And now, at four in the morning, I commence with evaluating my work for this semester. I decided to take Brooke's evaluation of me and respond to it, because it made me feel very good about myself and I wanted to go over it again. My responses will be in red. Thanks Brooke!
Posts

• Quantity: Johnny has done 35 posts which is great. He seems to be pretty consistent as well. I now have 37 posts.
• Content: Honestly, as interesting as I now find his blog, I haven't been following it this semester because of the sheer number of blogs to peruse in our class; so I had to go back and look over his work. His blog as really evolved and matured over the semester. He went from writing sonnets and reviewing performances to an acute focus on his theme of Manga as a valid vehicle for Shakespeare. I don't blame her for not following my blog, though it is heart wrenching she had to miss some of my masterpieces (insert that new sarcastic grammatical symbol here). I too appreciate the way I honed into my focus of manga, though I did enjoy giving my interpretation of some of Shakespeare's sonnets.
• Format: I feel like Johnny has done a really good job with his post titles. As you look through his history you can see that they get more and more informative as the year goes on. He also uses a lot of pictures which I think is totally appropriate because he's talking about Manga, a visual art. He's also very good at using page breaks and headings for his paragraphs. There is a funny story about my use of pictures. When I cut and pasted a good looking sock puppet picture for puppets, I later found the picture had been replaced with a flashing notice that my website contained items that were "hotkeyed" and that I was doing something illegal. I did not think that using such pictures would be illegal, since I don't have any adds on my blog and have no intention for using it to make a profit. I was more concerned about how someone was able to hack into my account, delete the picture, and put that flashing notice in its place.

Research 

• Thematic Focus: Johnny definitely has a clearly defined and stated focus for his research. He is looking into how Manga is the best way to portray Shakespeare because it captures the psychological aspects of the plays, and because there are strong comparisons between Japanese and Elizabethan cultures. I would not say I was looking at how manga is the "best" way to portray Shakespeare (his plays in particular) as much as proving that manga is a legitimate media to use; just one of many good options. I took this argument because I know too many people (family members included) who think that manga is childish because of its comic book qualities.
• Thesis and Cohesion: He does a great job at cohesively bringing his posts together by mentioning  what he's working on and his working thesis in almost every post. I agree with this.
• Sources: He has quite a few legitimate sources on his "sources" page. But, just a design suggestion would be to make it look more homogeneous. You can tell he copied and pasted a lot of his sources in so they don't match each other. I think the sources page is a problem, but I am not sure if I have time to fix it before the deadline.

Personal & Social 

• Author Identity: The author is most certainly present in this blog. Johnny has a great voice that really shows his personality. I have a tendency to lethally inject myself into most of what I write.
• Documentation of Progress: He does a really great job of this. He talks about his ideas, plans, progress, and research in pretty much every post. He also did several "hub" posts where he restates his thesis and collects his thoughts. Professor Burton mentioned that documenting my processes is one of my strong points. I think this is due to the fact that I love to give excuses, so if a project fails I can remember all of the work I did to show any audience I run into that at the very least I tried really really hard.
• Interactions: He's linked to other students in his blog and I can tell he's really interactive by the way he comments in class and offers up information. I found it touching that my class comments were mentioned here. Most of the time, I thought my comments random banter I used to fill up a silent moment. I feel like I was a "good citizen" in this blogging community, as Professor Burton put it once.

Design 

• Appropriate to Theme: I think he could do more with his design. His background is an old-timey map which doesn't really go with his Japanese animation theme. In response to this critique, I spent two hours trying to figure out how to change my template. I hope that the new one fits better with my theme. It features a manga character with a sword and dramatized features (yes, this includes cleavage, a feature I am sorry to say is quite often and very much dramatized in modern manga, to the satisfaction of pervs and fan girls everywhere) in a forest with the moon behind her. I hope I was able to convey my theme more adequately without offending anyone!
• Side Content: Johnny has a profile with his picture which is nice in a class like this where we're always talking about each others' work and trying to remember who's who. He also has labels which are helpful in our perspective because they're mostly all "learning outcomes" but if someone outside of our little bubble looked at them they'd probably be very confused. I agree with the problem about the labels, but I do include the lesson plan on a page, so hopefully if I don't have time to add all of the labels I would have liked to, Professor Burton will show some mercy.

I had a blast this semester. I am not sure if I will keep this blog up, but I will follow a few from my Shakespeare class during the summer. Thanks to all (or any) who followed me. This new method of teaching and learning is cutting edge. I will stand by it, even if I stand alone! 

Manga Hub IIII: Putting It All Together

I Did My Best

The above cartoon drawing is an avatar I created using face your manga, a website that claims to allow users to create avatars that resemble the features of manga characters. I think they used the word "manga" to draw people in, but the options resemble the characteristics of a normal cartoon more than the common characteristics of a manga character. The eyes should be bigger and at sharper angles, and the items offered should involve martial weapons rather than a bucket of popcorn, a hand flipping off the onlooker, and a peace sign (although the peace sign is still widely used in Japan). Still, I wanted to give you a visual of how much I have put myself into this project. Don't ask about the eye patch.

Thesis
With all of the options of usable modern media, manga is a legitimate source for presenting Shakespeare because the themes within Shakespeare's plays can be understood by the Japanese and nearly any other culture, it can be utilized as a teaching tool, and the art compliments the story without complicating it.


Does it Translate?
The first step towards legitimatizing manga as Shakespeare worthy is to see if members of the Japanese culture can understand anything that Shakespeare writes about. In my first hub post, I compare key elements of Japanese culture with that of the Elizabethan culture. Not only did I find that many of the elements matched (for instance chivalry with bushido), but I also concluded that many of Shakespeare's stories have universal themes that deal with the human condition. A good example of this is family feuds and immature romance.

Manga can Teach
In my post titled Manga and the Mind, I cited an article that went over the benefits of using manga to fuel the imagination of students and help them visualize Shakespeare with greater ease. The article went on to justify manga as a unique literary form.

The Literary Criticism
This affect that the visual element of manga has on the mind can be linked with my choice of literary criticism: psychoanalytical criticism. I have several posts regarding my interaction with a psychologist over Shakespeare, with the most prevalent being called "Getting Into Hamlet's Head".

My Experiment
In my post Manga Hub III, I explain the layout of my experiment. I wanted to find out if the pictures in a manga could speak for themselves and convey a Shakespearean scene without the Shakespearean language to give it away. In order to do this, I blanked out the speech in two pages of manga, one from a scene in Romeo and Juliet and another from Basilisk, a running manga series. The large majority of the class was able to recognize that the Romeo and Juliet page was the correct choice. I gave away that one of the scenes was from the fight scene in Romeo and Juliet, which might have given too much away. But, the class recognized what I thought they would: young characters, intense facials, and dueling.  I take this to mean that the foreign look to manga does not detract from its ability to convey emotion and violence to any audience.

Conclusions
Due to the ability of the Japanese (and much of the world) to understand the material, the benefits of manga's teaching possibilities, and the complimentary role the art plays in conveying the essence of the plays, I deem manga a suitable genre to utilize in presenting Shakespearean plays. This is not to say that the genre does not add its own flare to the original stories. Take the anime (a Japanese cartoon style that resembles manga) Romeo x Juliet.



Here we see a floating New Verona, horse dragons, Juliet dressing up as a man who dresses up as a vigilante, and huge sword fights. Though the story is lengthened and changed a bit, there are scenes from the play inserted directly into the anime, except they are sometimes backwards. For instance, it is Romeo's balcony that the famous balcony scene is given. Though I believe there are many wrong ways to insert Shakespeare into a foreign culture, it is remarkable to see how a nation took Shakespeare and made it into their own work. Though there are many non-authentic writers of manga, I believe that the style can be utilized to give both the Japanese and the rising generation a version of Shakespeare that they can better understand and relate to.

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria

• Posts
• Quantity
• There are more than enough posts dedicated to David's theme of Shakespeare and Germany. He has fifty five total posts, fifteen dedicated to Germany, and fifteen dedicated to Hamlet (which is part of his thesis).
• Content
• Variety - David has a balance of exploratory and expository posts. His last post was more of a casual post that included a recording of  Hamlet's monologue in Act 3, Scene 1 "To be or not to be". His analytical connections through out the posts are fluid and enlightening. His passion for both Germany and Shakespeare are apparent.
• Media -  David neatly incorporates media into his work, without being too distracting. I enjoyed his illustration in his post regarding theater and Nazis. As I mentioned, his last post included a voice recording, which is not a media I have seen used often on other class members blogs. This imaginative approach is also seen throughout his other posts regarding media.
• Analysis - Do some posts consist of primary texts being analyzed? There are many posts that analyze the primary text. For example in "Iambic Pentameter in German Shakespeare" David analyzes the original text in German to see if the iambic pentameter can be accomplished in German without distracting the reader. He analyzes multiple forms of media, including live theater in "The Joy of Live Theater".
• Format
• Titles - David has well matched titles that are specific and clarifying. My favorite is "Theater and Nazis".
• Jump Break ("Read Later") - David has plenty of appropriately placed jump breaks.
• Tags - David has mastered tagging. He has tagged each one of his posts.
• Research
• Thematic Focus
• David has a clean cut design that compliments his Germanic theme. He has a post dedicated to concluding his research on Hamlet and German. His theme is reflected consistantly.
• Thesis & Cohesion
• Does the hub post make a claim (take a stance, create an argument or thesis that will engage and could divide an educated audience)? Yes, David proves that Hamlet is Germany.
• Does the hub post bring together prior relevant posts through hyperlinks? Yes.
• Sources
• Are sources contributing to the research theme clearly listed in a separate "Sources" web page linked to from the hub post?
• Are sources mentioned in posts appropriately cited and linked?
• Personal & Social
• Author identity
• Is the author present to readers through a picture, an "About me" section? Yes.
• Do blog posts demonstrate a personal connection to topics? Yes.
• Does the overall design of the blog reflect the personality of the author? Yes.
• Documentation of Process
• Are there many posts in which the blog author explicitly narrates his or her personal process of inquiry? Yes.
• Interactions
• Is there evidence that the blog author interacted with others by responding to comments, or referring to interactions taking place elsewhere (online or in person)? Yes, David has gone out of his way to make comments and help those who read his blog by providing links to general Shakespeare sources.
• Design
• Are the media, color and other design choices appropriate to the personality of the author and/or the subject of research? Yes. The page looks great, as I stated previously.
• Side content - There are just enough widgets to not distract the blogger.

Puppets

Failure
I wanted to connect my experience with the sock puppet show I participated in on Wednesday with psychoanalytical criticism, since sock puppets seem to frequently pop up in therapy sessions as tools to help express the inner psychosis of a patient by giving him or her access to an avatar that allows one to speak openly about inner turmoil, but I could not find any professional work on the subject. Therefore, I will give you my experience with the puppets without the benefit of a professional source.

My Puppet and Me
I played Romeo, but I also got to act like George Baily and a dancer at a gay club (unless Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" is playing in straight clubs now). I did not play more than one character, Janelle simply fused a few things together in our script. Before we even began filming, I put my puppet on to see how he looked as he spoke. I practiced moving his mouth by reciting a few lines from the script. The person in charge of bringing the set was running a little late, so those present began conversing. I joined in this pleasant conversation, forgetting about the fancy sock on my hand. Suddenly, some of the people I was conversing with began laughing, eyes centered on my puppet. When I looked at my puppet (mid sentence) I noticed that my hand was automatically moving with my mouth. It was terrifying. I couldn't help but wonder if I was speaking through the puppet, or if the puppet was speaking through me (dun dun duuun).I also noticed that while I had that puppet on, I had way more confidence than usual, and I said things I would usually deem too argumentative. This behavior was prolonged past the filming of the play. Just wearing the puppet, and moving his mouth with mine, does something to my brain. I am not sure if this counts as a link to psychoanalytical criticism (perhaps my id used the puppet to express itself) or if it is just weird, but I thought it was worth blogging about.