An Article by Rhiannon Jones

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE HERE

On MyShakespeare there is an article by Rhiannon Jones discussing the affect of Web 2.0 and the new habits of the younger generation and it's affect on Shakespeare. She discusses how the fleeting expression of drama through the stage and theatre is lost on these platforms, however it has allowed people to re-visit Shakespeare's characters and understand them in a new light.

There is a growing trend by young people, (a younger audience), and women as the focus in this article, to re-establish Shakespeare's heroines in a way that identifies them with themselves and their lives today. As stated by Rhiannon,

"The online world is allowing young women to identify more intensely with Shakespeare’s characters, through encountering them in a space which is not demarcated as highbrow, or even separate from their day to day lives, they are able to reappropriate and own Shakespeare in a new way." Jones, R. 2012.

The content that is being produced, and given as examples by Rhiannon, are images on Pintrest, and various video/ filmic interpretations. You can find the links to these pieces in the original article (link at the start of this post). A lot of them are quite filmic, but the example with women portraying their own Ophelia by laying in the bath and contemplating their mortality is something that is realistic, simple and completely relatable.

This proves the relevance of my project direction, and kind of shows that my idea (that I sort of had :-( ) has already been done. Perhaps I should not worry so much about the location in the real world and just join all this existing content with my own creation and interpretation of Shakespeare, which was going to be the end aim/ result anyway....?