Who said we needed to know readings? (1 Viewer)

[LexxY]

We had a lecturer and scholar person come to our school and talk about King Lear. She is also some1 who wrote the BOS stuff for English. Anyways, when we had 'question' time HEAPS of people were concerned about readings of the play like Marxist and Feminist, to which she replied: you don't need to have a reading of your own OR label a production with a reading. All you need to do is have an interpretation about what the play is about, and see other productions in the same way, mainly because readings are complex and productions draw from many aspects of different readings.

Has anyone else been 'informed' or been taught this way, and if so plz explain further cos all 160 of us were mortified!

 

[goan_crazy]

you dont HAVE to do anything
u can do this module any way U want
coz its YOUR interpretation of KL

we didnt learn ANY readings!

 

[wanton-wonton]

We had a lecturer and scholar person come to our school and talk about King Lear. She is also some1 who wrote the BOS stuff for English. Anyways, when we had 'question' time HEAPS of people were concerned about readings of the play like Marxist and Feminist, to which she replied: you don't need to have a reading of your own OR label a production with a reading. All you need to do is have an interpretation about what the play is about, and see other productions in the same way, mainly because readings are complex and productions draw from many aspects of different readings.

Has anyone else been 'informed' or been taught this way, and if so plz explain further cos all 160 of us were mortified!

That's quite interesting. My teacher emphasised that I must have my OWN reading. In contrast with what you said..."you don't need to have a reading of your own".

Anyway, can you elaborate on what you said...they both sound quite similar to me...

 

[LexxY]

Like our teachers were telling us: you need to apply a reading to every version of King Lear AND you need to think of a production you would make and reading you would use for it.

Lecturer said: Dont use readings, talk about themes that each emphasises. Talk about what themes speak to you.

It isn't really the same thing because readings come from themes. Get it or.. Im still confussing you?

 

[ujuphleg]

Readings <----> Interpretations.

IMO the two are mutually exclusive.

Supposedly, in marking, the students who do the best are those who come up with original interpretations of King Lear. Hard to do, of course, considering the scope and breadth to which this course has been studied.

Having said that, they are looking more for things like example, in your interpretation of King Lear, you've said that all the lights except for one should be out at the end of the play. Why is that? Why is the use of lighting so important in a stage play? Going on to explain your reasons for it (sometimes using academic sources like "Jan Kott's thesis on the inherent nihilism of this play is not an accurate interpretation as the responder believes that Edward's final lines give a new meaning of hope, which is symbolised in this interpretation by the single light illuminating the speaker in this final scene" or something like that.)

Just an example. I think you would be foolhardy though not to research different readings/interpretations as after all, the title of the module IS Critical Study of Texts thus insinuating that you should have SOME knowledge of the "critical interpretations of your text" - ie, how others have percieved it, and how they have translated this into productions - otherwise known as readings/interpretations.

I hope that makes sense. Best of Luck.