Exploring Diversity and History Through Shakespeare and Saenz (8)

Exploring Diversity and History Through Shakespeare and Saenz

The only author specifically mentioned in both Next Generation and Common Core state standards at every secondary grade level is William Shakespeare. State standards dictate that starting from 9th grade until 12th grade students will “analyze and defend how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific literary work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare),(CCSS RL.9-10.9)” (West Virginia Department of Education). Though Shakespeare did not write a gay fairy tale in the way that Benjamin Alire Saenz has with his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (ADDSU), many of his plays do deal with the idea of love and who has the right to fall in love with whom. I think that Saenz’s piece would pair well with Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. By pairing this Shakespeare play with Saenz, teachers can create a history integrated ELA lesson that focuses on both race and love in order to demonstrate to students that literature deals with issues that are timeless.

In order to understand the complex issues that ADDSU and Merchant deal with, students will have to first understand the historical contexts of the Jewish, Latino, and homosexual experience. One of the most effective tools on the internet is interactive web tools. A great resource for exploring Jewish history is PBS’s interactive website The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/story-jews/) which has an interactive geographical map and timeline that allows students to virtually explore visual and textual representations of Jewish diasporas throughout history. NPR has a wonderful interactive map that deals with the Latina/o immigration experience called Borderland (http://apps.npr.org/borderland/?). The National LGBT Museum has a website that is visually interesting, and it does a great job of showing LGBT issues as well as famous LGBT people throughout history in the “Being Us” section (https://nationallgbtmuseum.org/#/the_core_exhibit/). After students have had the chance to explore the history of the unifying themes in both texts, they will have a better understanding of the feelings and emotions of the characters and relationships that Shakespeare and Saenz feature in the texts.

Exploring relationships in Shakespeare’s work and comparing them to themes in ADDSU, satisfies state standards that deal with diversity studies. Butcher and Hinton note that “teachers and library media specialists  should select and use multicultural literature that is free from bias, distortion, stereotypes, racism,and sexism” (40). Merchant deals specifically with racial biases that Jewish people suffered at the hands of the religious majority during the Elizabethan era. While ADDSU does not deal with systemic prejudices stemming from religion, Dante is beaten and left for dead, and a Ari’s brother beats a transgender female to death. Saenz also uses the theme of Mexican identity throughout the novel, and specifically touches on stereotypes through the ideals that both boys project when they speak about what it is to be Mexican. In pointing out the gay themes in ADDSU, teachers can touch of the gay themes in Merchant, posing the question of Antonio’s love for Bassanio. By showing students how Ari’s and Dante’s relationship is not completely accepted by the outside world, teachers can begin a conversation about the merits and setbacks of Jessica’s and Lorenzo’s relationship. There are many parallel themes in ADDSU and Merchant, and by pointing them out to students, it may make Shakespeare a more accessible author to young people.

In pairing Saenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe with Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, teachers can create an integrated unit that demonstrates multicultural themes and satisfies state requirements. What is most important, though, is that by using this pairing, teachers can show the timelessness of Shakespeare’s works and show how the classical author dealt with controversies that affect us still today. By integrated interactive web tools, teachers can make each lesson fun and interesting while satisfying 21st century skills requirements. I am very excited to try this pairing in my future classroom.

Works Cited

Bucher, Katherine and Hinton, Kaa Vonia. Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2006. Print.

Inskeep, Steve. Borderland. NPR. 3 April 2013. Web. 18 June 2015. http://apps.npr.org/borderland/

National LGBT Museum. “Home.” n.p. n.d. Web. 18 June 2015. https://nationallgbtmuseum.org/#/home/

Schama, Simon. “The Story of the Jews.” PBS. 2014. Web. 18 June 2015. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/story-jews/

Saenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Simon and Schuster: New York, 2012. Print.

Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Merchant of Venice."The Norton Shakespeare.” New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. 839-904. Print.

West Virginia Department of Education. 8th Grade ELA Next Generations CSO’s. n.p. n.d. 18 June 2015. Web. http://wveis.k12.wv.us/Teach21/public/ng_cso/NG_CSO.cfm?tsele1=1&tsele2=9