So reading the introductory materials in prepping for the Master’s Thesis, the suggestion was to create mind-maps, one for me, and one for a passion…
for me…
for a passion (Shakespeare, no surprise)…
There are some possibilities here…
There has been quite a bit of scholarship on missing mothers (Lear, Taming, Tempest, Much Ado, and Othello, all come immediately to mind). But what about those mothers who are there? Particularly in the Roman plays of Coriolanus and Titus? The former comes earliest in the chronology of Roman plays, but near the end of Shakespeare’s career; the latter at the end of the chronology but near the beginning of his career. Does this have an effect on his portrayal of motherhood? And how do the two more famous Roman plays–Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra–add to the conversation? In the former, we get two wives who are childless (and one who is conceivably–no pun intended–barren); in the latter, two mothers who are historically mothers but whose children are absent themselves in the plays.
I wonder if there’s something there…
Though I’d love to make something happen from a dramaturgical level, bridging the stage with the page…