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What kind of person was Shakespeare? What was
life really like for him and his contemporaries?
What were people thinking, doing, writing about,
or inventing? What kinds of music did they listen
to? What recipes did they use in their cooking?
The section of the CD-ROM that deals with
Shakespeare's life and times is a multimedia
library that introduces explorers to the world
Shakespeare and his audience lived in.
This section of the CD-ROM is enhanced by
superior graphics, music, and some video clips of
renaissance dance. There is also a feature that
allows users to create their own web pages as
they work through the program, with links to the
sections that they choose to comment on.
Instructional Level
The program will appeal to general readers, and
students from High School level to introductory
College or University. Advanced students will
find extensive bibliographies that point to
future study in the library. The power of the
computer allows users to choose the level of
complexity they wish to work at.
Instructional Objectives
Although there are many references to
Shakespeare's plays in the program, there is no
extensive discussion of the texts themselves. The
program is not intended to be a critical analysis
of Shakespeare; it is an introduction to what we
know of his life, the stage where his plays were
first acted, and the various influences--social,
political, intellectual, and literary--that lie
behind the words on the page.
Shakespeare's Life and Times is designed
in a format allowing maximum flexibility. For the
general reader and the high school student it
offers enough detail for projects on major issues
raised by the plays. For university level
students the most effective use of the program is
as a link between the classroom and the library.
Recent films of Shakespeare's plays are a
wonderful way of modernizing Shakespeare for the
reader unused to his language. But the next stage
is to provide the tools for readers to understand
the original culture of the plays, and to come to
an understanding both of Shakespeare's language,
and the contexts from which they grew.
Shakespeare's Life and Times provides an
accessible and stimulating environment for this
kind of exploration.
How the Program Is Organized
The flexibility of the computer allows the
program to be organized in a number of different
ways simultaneously.
- Individual topics are described as "books,"
each with a number of "chapters." Users can use
the "tree" structure of the menus, beginning with
the Introduction and branching to the menus in
each Book and Chapter.
- Users can go directly to the Indexes in the
Reference Book and look for the subject that most
interests them there. Clicking on a word or
phrase will bring up the relevant page.
- Users can go to the section of Frequently
Asked Questions about Shakespeare (in the
Reference section) and browse until they find a
question that is of interest. Clicking on it will
bring up a page that will help towards finding an
answer.
- Users can go to the selection of Plays
Explored, find a play that interests them, then
use the topics introduced there as a starting
point for exploration.
- Users can go to the Map (accessible from any
card through the icon of the compass at the top
of the screen) and click on a topic there. The
Map is like the center of a web, branching
directly to all parts of the program.
- It is also possible to treat the program like
a book, starting at the opening screen and
"paging" through it with the forward arrow.
Click here to see the
list of system requirements.
About A
Shakespeare Suite
| System Requirements
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Order the CD-ROM
from
Insight Media:
US customers
Other countries
Scroll down the page to A Shakespeare
Suite.
2162 Broadway,
New York, NY 10024-0621,
USA
The Internet Shakespeare Editions is a
non-profit organization. All proceeds from the
CD-ROM go to research and development.
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