{"id":2073,"date":"2021-02-23T15:45:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T20:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earlhamcollege.wpengine.com\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2021-02-26T10:22:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T15:22:36","slug":"earlham-professors-book-explores-shakespeares-storytelling-techniques-using-modern-tv-shows-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlham.edu\/news-events\/earlham-professors-book-explores-shakespeares-storytelling-techniques-using-modern-tv-shows-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"Earlham professor\u2019s book explores Shakespeare\u2019s storytelling techniques using modern TV shows, movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A new textbook written by Earlham professor Nate Eastman offers a different kind of approach to appreciating William Shakespeare and understanding how stories are well told. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Storytelling: An Introduction to Genre, Character, And Technique<\/em> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) illustrates how the stories that Shakespeare wrote, and the techniques that he used to write them have been adapted by writers for popular television shows like \u201cSex and the City,\u201d novels like \u201cBeloved\u201d and plays like \u201cFences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wrote this book to solve a really specific problem,\u201d said Eastman, a Shakespearean scholar and associate professor of English at Earlham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of teaching Shakespeare the traditional way, by looking at history, this book is forward-looking. Readers can see what Shakespeare does, and learn why he matters, by seeing how his storytelling techniques have been used in books, TV shows, and movies that they already know and love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The textbook was written to support high school and college classes in the areas of creative writing, English, film and media. The book is available in digital and paperback formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is for people who are teaching or experiencing Shakespeare, but who are not necessarily planning to go to graduate school,\u201d he notes. Eastman\u2019s text focuses on the craft of storytelling rather than on the history of the original works and the scholarship that has grown around them.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eastman\u2019s Earlham students are already familiar with the innovative approach of the book. During the last decade, he has taught several versions of a course called Shakespeare’s Afterlives, which reads modern novels, plays, and films, including \u201cStar Wars,\u201d \u201cThe Godfather\u201d and \u201cThe Fifth Season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShakespeare matters because he was an inventor,\u201d he said noting the famed playwright\u2019s use of character flaws, conflicts, and symbols in his plays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare\u2019s portrayal of father figures in \u201cHamlet,\u201d for example, gives its protagonist a choice of opposing values to be guided by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2019Star Wars,\u2019 \u2018Coraline,\u2019 \u2018Moana\u2019 and dozens of other stories use that same technique as Shakespeare\u2019s,\u201d he said. \u201cYoung characters make decisions about how they\u2019re going to live, and which values they\u2019ll adopt, by choosing loyalties to specific adults.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his classes and published works, Eastman is also a founding member and current vice president of the Richmond Shakespeare Festival, which was established in 2014. The organization works with student interns and professional performers in its summer productions at Whitewater Gorge Park in Richmond. The organization also sponsors Shakespeare in the Park at Elstro Plaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Eastman also collaborated with Earlham\u2019s Theatre Arts department to teach a yearlong sequence of courses in which students helped produce \u201cOthello.\u201d  A focus of the initiative was on dramaturgy, or researching the history of the text, the culture in which Shakespeare wrote, and the history of the racial, political and religious conflicts that informed the play in order to prepare aides for the actors, director and crew.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Media contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Brian Zimmerman<\/strong>
Assistant vice president of strategic communications
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Email: zimmebr@earlham.edu
Phone: 765.983.1256<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n