Shakespeare's Legacy in YA Literature

In my ongoing project about how Shakespeare has affected YA literature, I've spent a lot of time looking at direct adaptations and spinoffs in YA novels. As such, I've been using primary texts far more than scholarly materials. To rectify this inadequacy, I read through one of the chapters in Heirs to Shakespeare that I mentioned in this post.

The chapter I read is titled "Hamlet: Prince of the Schoolyard" and it discusses how Hamlet shows up in modern YA lit beyond direct adaptations. The chapter discusses several novels that use Shakespearean themes and character types, but what I found most interesting was the comparison between Hamlet and Bridge to Terabithia. You may be thinking, what in the world does that novel have to do with Hamlet?? Okay, that's what I thought when I started reading. But Megan Lynn Isaac actually points out some surprising parallels.

Mark Zuckerberg

Just a quick post to say that I attended the Mark Zuckerberg technology forum. It was interesting and an enormous privilege to have him come to BYU, especially since he's never done such a big university presentation before. I wish it had been a little more organized and that he'd had time to answer more questions, but it was still cool. I liked his discussion of the interconnectivity of technology and sociology, that at the end of the day all problems are human problems. I think Shakespeare would agree.

Teen Themes: Female Friendship

This post is the second of two posts on themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream that appeal to teenagers, part of my ongoing project about YA lit adaptations of Shakespeare. You can see the first post here.

The second theme that I found in A Midsummer Night's Dream that I thought a YA author could take advantage of is the friendship between Hermia and Helena. Most YA lit readers are female (male teenagers read less in general, and those who do read gravitate towards non-fiction) and friendship is hugely important to teenage girls.

Teen Themes: Frustrated Love

This post is the first of two about themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream that appeal to teenagers.

When adapting Shakespeare, it's important to consider what themes the target audience will appreciate. This means that authors who adapt Shakespeare for a teen audience need to find themes in the original texts that apply to teen experience. The themes that the authors of YA Shakespeare spinoffs choose to explore may or may not be the main themes of the original plays. For example, Ariel by Grace Tiffany (see my book review) explores the ideas that imagination is powerful, that the search for power can ruin people's lives, and that friendly love trumps spontaneous romance. Some of these themes align with The Tempest but others do not.

As I read A Midsummer Night's Dream, I looked for themes that would appeal to teen readers, especially themes that I would capitalize on if I were writing a YA adaptation. One theme I thought would translate well is frustrated love.

Future Posting

This doesn't mean I'm posting from the future, ha ha. But as the semester winds down, I need to make sure that I know when I'm going to be posting on which topics. I've been shedding motivation like a snake sheds skin, and I didn't have much of it to start with.

To Read
Loser's Guide to Love and Life
Henry V
Scholarly research
Two other YA adaptations, probably The Wednesday Wars and either Dating Hamlet or Ophelia

To Post

Scholarly Resources

In my search to understand how Shakespeare is adapted for young adults, I need to focus more on the scholarly side of things, so I went to the library and checked out a couple cool books that I plan to peruse.

The first book analyzes how Shakespeare appears in young adult literature today, giving lists of books that have Shakespearean themes as well as making direct comparisons of YA texts to the original plays.

Isaac, Megan Lynn. Heirs to Shakespeare: Reinventing the Bard in Young Adult Literature. Portsmouth: Boynton, 2000. 

The second book discusses children and young adults as a new audience for Shakespeare and how Shakespeare has been modified to help children understand and appreciate the Bard. I'm especially excited for the chapters "Playing with Shakespeare: Making Worlds from Words" and "Harry Potter and the Shakespearean Allusion."

Miller, Naomi J. Reimagining Shakespeare for Children and Young Adults. New York: Routledge, 2003. 

Also, I didn't check this book out, but it looked like it might be useful to Claire. It has multiple articles about different aspects of teaching Shakespeare; the article that caught my eye was about using Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War to ease teenagers into a critical approach of Macbeth.

Davis, James E. Teaching Shakespeare Today: Practical Approaches and Productive Strategies. 1993. Library Catalog: PR 2987 .T37

And Now For Something Completely Different

Just a quick fun post in case there are people out there who haven't seen this yet. It never fails to make me giggle. (Warning for language at the end.)