Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 3, No. 326. Thursday, 19 November 1992.
(1) From: NAOMI LIEBLER <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 18 Nov 92 17:56:00 EST
Subj: RE: SHK 3.0325 SHREW: An Answer and a Question
(2) From: Steve Urkowitz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 18 Nov 92 21:49:46 EST
Subj: Re: SHK 3.0322 Re: Another SHREW Variation (con't)
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: NAOMI LIEBLER <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 18 Nov 92 17:56:00 EST
Subject: 3.0325 SHREW: An Answer and a Question
Comment: RE: SHK 3.0325 SHREW: An Answer and a Question
On Phyllis Rackin's question regarding the proliferation of Shrews: "And if
there have been a lot of Shrews, is that a good thing or a bad?" I won't
venture an opinion about the frequency of productions, though I vehemently
agree with your assessment of the Stratford fiasco. I do think, however, that
it is a very good thing that students want to discuss this play. If your
students are anything like mine, a significant number of them are still
wrestling with gender politics. I like to turn them loose for a specific period
of time with the red-herring question of whether Kate is tamed or, in New
Jersey parlance, just "getting over," and then explode the inquiry with the
observation that the story of Kate and Petruchio is itself a ruse perpetrated
by a manipulative Lord upon poor old Sly who will find himself back on the
street after the hoax has paled. I.e., in that context, "messages" are
constructed by the guy who is paying the players, as Hamlet pays for the
insertion of some dozen or so lines to wring a response from Claudius. Ya dance
with the one that brung ya. That leads to a lovely discussion of the social and
political--and economic--construction of gender politics in general. Such
discussions are good for all of us, I think.
Cheers,
Naomi
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Urkowitz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 18 Nov 92 21:49:46 EST
Subject: 3.0322 Re: Another SHREW Variation (con't)
Comment: Re: SHK 3.0322 Re: Another SHREW Variation (con't)
A quick reminder about my favorite source for information about films and
videos: Kenneth Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer, SHAKESPEARE ON SCREEN:
AN INTERNATIONAL FILMOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY, relatively middle-priced about
$60, from Neal Schuman Publishers, NYC. They list 23 SHREWs, beginning with
a D.W.Griffith 1908 silent, and ending with the Moonlighting version.
Steve Urkowitz
SURCC@CUNYVM
