For most of next week, we'll read The Manga Shakespeare: King Lear as an example of a truly 'Global Shakespeare.' This work combines the comic book format with the Japanese manga style with a setting completely removed from Shakespeare's original--18th century America before the Revolutionary War (reminiscent of James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales--The Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, etc.).
By Wednesday, I want you to post ONE comment answering the following question below:
Close read a specific passage that you feel effectively translates Shakespeare from the flat page to the graphic novel format. How does this passage help us 'see' the characters, the staging, the ideas, the symbolism, or the language in a way that we might miss (or a younger student might miss) simply reading it on the page? Consider also the word + image relationships (we'll talk a lot about this on Monday) and how it helps tell the story on the 'stage' of a comic book. When discussing your passage, be sure to describe the images as well as the words so that we can understand how you're reading the comic as a whole. Remember that images are not primarily illustrations but a means of storytelling in their own right; there are always 2 stories going on in a comic--the story of the images and the story of the words.
Pages 130 and 131 are a good example of this translation to a graphic novel format. This is true not only because there are images or because of the style, but because we get to see how far the king's mind has slipped. The language in this scene hints at it, for example with his saying that he will see his eldest daughter's trials before he will rest. However, to just read the language it would be hard to know whether he is being facetious or if he is maybe making a point about how he can not truly rest until he has seen justice. However the images tell us that when he speaks of his second daughter he is holding a broom. This interdependent image helps to illustrate just how far he has gone. The same could be said of the fool. When she says (on 129) "Her boat hath a leak" this could be easy to misinterpret, because fools often say crazy things. However the image of the fool crying makes it clear to what she is referring. 130 is also illustration of the relationship because it helps us to see all three of the people in masks or costumes and how they play into the king's madness. He already thinks he is going crazy, but he begins to see people behind the act in this scene, which is illustrated through the half mask/half real if ghoulish faces that we see. His seeing these individuals convinces him more of his madness even though what he is really seeing is the truth. What actually doesn't make any sense is why the three counterfeiters chose not to reveal themselves in this moment and instead keep up the charade. Neither of them have anything to fear from the other and even if the king should decide to turn on them he is alone in the woods without any of his knights and basically bereft of his power. Instead they all seem to be too busy feeling sorry for him to realize that they could all help each other.
ReplyDeleteMacy McDonald
Nikki Ennis
ReplyDeleteOn pages 46-47, this particular passage, I feel, effectively translates well to graphic novel, and helps the reader to understand this passage better. Here, Edmund is telling his father that he received a letter from his brother Edgar that is treacherous to his father in nature. We might be apt to believe Edmund if we were just reading this passage. However, in the adaptation, we see Edmund with conniving facial expressions as he spins his tale to his father, letting us know for certain that Edmund is up to no good.
The page that I found interesting depicts the scene directly following the servant’s revelation that Goneril and Regan have died at each other’s hand (199). At the top of the page, we see Goneril and Regan’s bodies framed by a close up of their own faces and that of Edmund. The inclusion of Edmund’s face is important because his presence pushes the image into the realm of the symbolic—this is no longer a simple illustration of Goneril and Regan’s deaths, but instead an image of all traitor’s deaths.
ReplyDelete“Speak, Edmund.” Command’s a disembodied voice, “Where’s the King? Where’s Cordelia?” The overlying words add another layer to the top panel’s story, and serve to foreshadow Cordelia’s tragic fate. Although I had never read King Lear before, I knew as soon as I saw the two sister’s bodies that Cordellia was going to die—it’s never a good sign when a character talked about while images of death and destruction appear behind the words.
The only other thing I can say for this page is that I like the way the artist took advantage of the whiteness of the page. On this page the white background seems to be the realm of the dead—with Cordelia and Regan as its only occupants. Edmund doesn't become a part of it until his actual death, but his words transcend the “living” panels’ edges even while he lives, implying that the dead world has already claimed him.
Melissa Williams
ReplyDeleteDr. J. Grasso
Shakespeare
February 24, 2014
Manga King Lear
On Page 37 and 38, there is a specific passage that speaks to me. Page 37 details how Lear no longer sees Cordelia as his own daughter and refuses to give a dowry with her when she is wed. After King Lear has stated he no longer sees Cordelia as his own daughter, we receive a close up of her face which is sideways in the picture while another zoomed out image of her falls sideways also upside down in the rest of the picture. It is like Cordelia’s world is shattered and she is torn between being two different people. Should she keep to the marriage or should she stay with her father? Afterwards on page 38 we see Cordelia hanging her head in shame, and beneath that Lear tells the men, “Thou hast her, France. Let her be thine, for we have no such daughter, nor shall ever see that face of hers again (38).” This book did a really good job of showing Lear off as a maniacal dictator, while also playing up the generational gap between he and his daughter Cordelia. His hair is white and his skin wrinkled, and he is always haggard and angry in every scene.
On pages 80-87, it illustrates the treachery of Edmund against his brother Edgar. He speaks with him as if he were protecting him from being discovered further by an enemy, when really Gloucester is hidden and listening. Edgar believes his brother, who appears to "protect" him from his "enemies" when really he's framing him for their father's sake. "Draw!" Edmund yells, then whispers, "seem to defend yourself!" Against this, his drawn axe and Edgar's surprised look make it seem as if he's wondering what's really going on. The silhouettes seen in the light from the darkened panel is what Gloucester is seeing. When Edgar obeys Edmund and flees, the treacherous one fakes that he's been wounded in a fight against a traitor, with the same effect as the first darkened panel on page 82: the "guilty" party framed in light. This allows Edmund to tell their father that Edgar plotted against him, showing him the arm that he cut himself (pg 83), and Edmund tells him that Edgar wanted him dead--the horror with which Gloucester receives this is well-drawn. It is especially increased since Gloucester is angry on Edmund's behalf, which he may never have been before; in the middle is a short pause as father questions son on what was happening, and the reply is that the other son wished treason upon the former, something Gloucester may never have believed of Edgar. On page 85, Gloucester stands stock-still like a deer caught in headlights as Edmund lies to him about their argument and fight. Then he takes his bastard son in his arms, which lends itself well because Edmund's real, self-inflicted pain garners sympathy for himself. After this, Regan and Cornwall arrive, as Edmund glories in the success of his plot. The frame is edged in light, but the black silhouette of Edmund is framed by shadow with a whitened smile--an interesting difference as the brothers are framed the same way, but the quality of their characters highlighted based on scene. Then as Regan and Cornwall come into view, asking what's wrong, the reader knows he now can fool others, who are themselves evil, with the same lie, as their belief and anger will lend itself to Gloucester's belief. And Edmund does so, and both seem, if not equally dismayed, certainly of equal choler at the "outrage." Then Edmund's wound, as shown by his father, prompts Cornwall and Regan to "help" and reward them both. Cornwall, though married to scheming Regan, even looks somewhat trusting as this happens (with any evidence to the contrary well hidden).
ReplyDeleteJessie Randall
I found the scene on pg. 163-166 worked very well in a staged format. This scene is difficult to convey in just text because of Shakespeare’s lack of stage direction, and without a visual enactment a reader, especially a Shakespeare beginner, could miss the meat of the scene. At this point in the story, “Poor Tom” is leading the blinded Gloucester, who has requested being taken to a cliff on his property that “looks fearfully into the deep” (149), and alludes to committing suicide. Tom leads him to a small rock on the shore, and the frames illustrate moment-by-moment actions. Tom’s trickery is communicated effectively with the illustrations, more so than in original text. The scene is also made more intense and memorable by dramatizing Gloucester’s final benediction with embellished dialogue enclosures and the (fleeting) moment in which he is suspended in the air. As he is expecting to fall a great distance, he is illustrated as he would have felt freefalling through nothingness. This particular illustration is not framed, but appears on the page apparently behind the established frames, making the bottom frame that reveals his short fall to the ground sudden and somewhat humorous. The reader is immediately aware that his is still alive and has been tricked, where in the original play this scene would be confusing to read and easy to mistake.
ReplyDeleteOn page 46, we see Edmund lose his pupils. As Nikki stated, throughout this scene, the illustrations show us Edmund's true intentions. We also see this on page 21 when Goneril is lying about how much she loves her father. I think for me, seeing that Edmund's eyes were blank white helped me to see his true nature and vices. It added an extra layer of wickedness. Also, for someone who might not know this play or Edmund's character might not catch on that he's lying; however, this illustration definitely reveals a clear message to readers. It is always a bad sign when someone loses their pupils!
ReplyDeleteCourtney White
Sometimes in a play with many characters it’s hard to keep them all straight, especially when everyone is in disguise all the time, which Shakespeare just loves to do! So in the very beginning of the novel, where the pages are colored, I liked how every daughter looked very different. I’m doubt that in the original King Lear all the daughters were that drastically different, but it worked really well for the comic form of King Lear. Not only do the daughters look drastically different, but Regan and Goneril look evil and crazy, hint hint, where Cordelia looks sweet and Native American, like her father, the king. This helped me, and I’m sure it would help secondary aged students, to keep the characters straight in the play and to pick up on the sarcasm in the evil sisters’ voices when they are speaking, as their conniving faces give them away in the comic version. I also liked how we knew who was disguised as whom and the confusion was minimal in the who’s who department, as we can actually see pictures of the characters. I have never been introduced to Shakespeare in this way, and I did find that aspect of the graphic novel to be helpful.
ReplyDelete-Tori W.
I found pages 50-53 translated particularly well into a the graphic novel form. Had I only been reading the play, I would not have understood the measure of Edgar's fear. At first, he is uninterested in whatever Edmund has to say, happily smiling to himself and focusing on his task. This staging helped to draw an obvious contrast for when Edgar reacts to Edmund's bad news. On pages 52 and 52, the illustrator gives us two huge frames with focus on Edgar's eyes which a spread wide with fear and shock. These frames make him seem innocent and pitiable. Furthermore, without the facial expressions of Edgar, I would have been confused as to why he becomes a mad man later in the story. After all, who loses their mind over their father being angry at them? The graphic novel form allowed me to see Edgar as a person, not just a character reading lines. Specifically, on page 51, the illustrator depicts Edgar's entire body, making him larger than anything else on the page. He also seems to be faded out and without shadow. When compared to Edmund's illustration this is a sharp contrast because Edmund is depicted darkly and with lots of shadowing. This is technique was a good way to implicitly explain the characters' temperaments. The large image of Edgar also allowed the audience to get a feel for his small-framed body type, which perhaps implies a child-like element in him.
ReplyDeleteI feel that page 44 does a great job at putting Shakespeare in a graphic novel format. Shakespeare through words gets us to feel and understand the emotions and thoughts of the characters. There are a lot of words to capture the frustrations of a character. Obviously in a graphic novel those emotions and thoughts cannot be felt by the reader through words but through images. And on page 44 a scene that would probably take up several lines on a flat page is turned into a few words. Edmund says “I grow…I prosper…Now, gods, stand up for bastards!” The frustration in his voice is felt not only for the words and how they are presented, spaced out and in bold print, but also because of the images. It shows Edmund on his back porch, which is a hanging balcony, zoomed out so that the reader can see the vast mountains and the land surrounding him. You can see this image with the words “I grow”, and “I prosper”. Then it zooms into him, but his back portrait, and you can see the vast land in front of him, and the dark clouds, his arms stretched out surrounding the mountain, as he yells “Now, gods, stand up for bastards!” The juxtaposition between the few words and the two images in this scene really does a nice job at capturing the frustration, anger, and revenge in his voice just as well as several lines on a flat page would.
ReplyDelete-Jasmine Quiñónez
The best graphic novels complement the text by providing additional contexts that couldn't be gotten from text only. The Manga Shakespeare: King Lear accomplishes this numerous times, but the scenes I'd like to point out occur on pages 140 to 145, where Gloucester goes blind. In the first frame on 140, eggs and a ladle can clearly be seen, which sets up the first frame of the next scene on page 142, where an egg falls and breaks and another egg is stepped on. The sense of dread starts on page 140, where Cornwall threatens Gloucester by waving pincers in front of him, and continues onto the next page and into the first frame where a variety of torture devices, including a ladle, are shown. More ladles are shown on page 141 in frame 3 (upper right and also at the bottom left, where the table and the egg basket meld together to look like a ladle). This detail is only possible through the use of graphics; the original text has no additional details that lay out the scenes, just words. When Cornwall says to Gloucester on page 141, “See it shalt thou never. Upon these eyes I'll set my foot,” the words are made more because of the imagery of the manga. Gloucester's shoes in the penultimate frame on 140 shows what looks to be eyes, which connects the text and the graphics even more. The text of King Lear tells a wonderful story, but the addition of graphics allows for a deeper exploration of the text that wasn't possible before. A graphical interpretation of a text strengthens imagination by creating more layers that ultimately help reveal or show nuances of the story that might have been previously hidden.
ReplyDelete- Casey Fowler
On page 20-39 the love test effectively translates Shakespeare. He seems to have a thing for tests of love in our readings in As You Like it Orlando's love is put to the test by Rosalind when she fakes being a man and tries to make him fall out of love with her which she as Ganymede discredits he is even actually in love with her/Rosalind. In The Merchant of Venice the suitors of Portia must pass a test designed by her deceased father and pick one of three chests gold, silver, and lead one containing the picture of Portia the suitor that chooses the right chest with her picture in it is deemed worthy of marrying Portia and as well as inheriting/ruling her kingdom according to her deceased father. With King Lear the test is who doth profess they love thy father the most inherits more riches/land.
ReplyDeleteLisa Edge
On page 63-65 there’s a scene between Cordelia as the fool, Kent disguised as the aid, and King Lear where she’s teasing the king. He’s recently banished Cordelia and Kent, and he doesn’t seem to realize that they’re in his presence again. However, maybe because of what she’s been saying like ‘can you make no use of nothing nuncle?’ , Kent seems to be suspicious. While the fool is perched up on the table, we see Kent lift his mask then there’s a close up of his surprised expression and the shoe showing beneath the fool’s costume, Cordelia’s shoe. He recognizes her but doesn’t ever say anything about it. I haven’t actually read the play so I don’t know what was or was not left out here, but the fool’s conversation makes the reader and Kent suspicious while the images of him seeing her shoe confirm it. King Lear repeats his line that ‘nothing can be made out of nothing’ like it’s an old adage of his. Cordelia as the fool taunts him again, and he asks her ‘dost thou call me fool, boy?’ She replies with ‘all thy other titles thou hast given away that thou wast born with’ while her character seems to be prancing around on the table. Lear looks thoughtful as Kent acknowledges that this fool may not be entirely a fool which seems to be a common theme in Shakespeare’s plays. I like the picture of her knocking the egg out of King Lear’s hangs as he’s about to eat it then cracking it open and playing with the insides and shell as she makes her ‘lords and great men will not let me have all the fool to myself’ speech.
ReplyDeleteKim McCreery
I think that page 119 is a good representation of King Lear's descent into madness. It somewhat echoes the scene in The Merchant of Venice where Jessica and Lorenzo are trading "on a night such as this" stories. King Lear actually says "In such a night to shut me out." This wording gives a sense that the play is only going to sink deeper into a tragedy, and that Lear is a doomed character. This page is also much darker than the previous page. As King Lear begins to maniacally rant, he and the people with him begin to walk down into a cave. This portrayal helps the reader get a sense that he is sinking into a insanity. His mind is clouded and his senses are getting darker. This portrayal is important, because it is a visual interpretation of a progression into madness, that otherwise would be confusing if it were experienced only through dialogue.
ReplyDelete- Cayla O.
Page 43-43 where Edmund is looking over the land giving his speck about being a bastard and having no right to the land really translates well. Just reading the words alone can come off as really flat and can leave any reader unfamiliar with the play lost. King leer was always described to me as "a play about an illegitimate son who wants his share of the land". While this is only one detail of the story I believe the graphic novel helps it come across. You are able to see Edmund's face during the scene and see the emotion behind the words and this help stir emotion in the readers as well.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the letter Edmund had written was also very effective. I'm not sure what the play does here because I have yet to read it but with the lack if stage directions I can only imagine this was created for the graphic novel. I'll know in about a week but the letter combined with his facial expressions really helped you know his plotting nature and what his goals really were.
Janne
Pages 63-76 I found myself rereading. This is King Lear's quick escalation to fear at the hands of the fool. This part moved so fast. When I went through just reading it, I didn't really feel any emotion. But when I went back and studied each picture, I see the King go from complete shock on page 64, to a smirk on page 66, to confidence in his next moves on page 72, to complete anger on page 74, to finally sorrow on page 76. I could not have imagined these emotions on my own. I would have probably imagined straight anger as I usually do with Shakespeare's characters. I lean mostly on them raging out in my mind. The lines "Darkness and Devils" King Lear would be ranting in my head and I would miss out on the deep range of emotions he goes through on these pages.
ReplyDeleteFelicia Doyle
ReplyDeleteWhile reading, "The Wicked Wit of Charles Dickens," I have discovered that Charles is a very contemporary work that can be compared to Shakespeare's sometimes crazy ideas. This link below can be listened to in both American and British accents which is very fun to do during long snow days:
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.ecok.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=294508.20120207&site=eds-live
You all will have to copy and paste, but it could be worth it. Also, Charles Dickens has had many "witty" things to say for himself despite troublesome times.
" ' It's not Madness, ma'am,' replied Mr. Bumble, after a few moments of deep meditation. 'It's Meat.'
'What?' exclaimed Mrs. Sowerberry."
That being an excerpt from "Oliver Twist" (1837-9), you can really read into the stories beyond the print. Aren't surface readings fun?