Leah's Annotated Bibiliography (1)

By: flowerlkd on 2:33 PM

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Performance of a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V in "The Defector"

In my paper, "An Android's Humanity: Discovery through Shakespeare and Star Trek," I assert that Data, an android in the Next Generation series utilizes scenes from Shakespeare's plays in order to understand human nature because Shakespeare is one of the unique playwrights who critically captures the human spirit in a way that resonates with audiences of science fiction.

Scholarly Sources:

Kazimierczak, Karolina. "Adapting Shakespeare for "Star Trek" and "Star Trek" for Shakespeare: "The Klingon Hamlet" and the Spaces of Translation." Studies in Popular Culture 32.2 (2010): 35-55. Web.

This article discusses adaptations and translations of Shakespeare that exist within the Star Trek culture. Kazimierczak brings up some very interesting points that are helpful in analyzing any adaptations of Shakespeare such as those that exist within episodes of The Next Generation series.

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead, 1998. Print.

Bloom asserts that Shakespeare is one of the first writers to accurately recreate the human condition and gives evidence from a wide variety of Shakespeare’s plays. Since Data’s purpose in re-enacting scenes from Shakespeare was to better understand the human condition, blooms writings will support this theory.

Geraghty, Lincoln. ""Star Trek" in American Studies: An Alien Concept." Science Fiction Studies29.3 (2002): 532-33. Web.

Although this article is very brief, Geraghty accurately describes the over-arching importance of Star Trek within cultural studies. The connections between Shakespeare and Star Trek, two phenomena that have penetrated our culture, are innumerable and allow us to make an interesting analysis.

Reinheimer, David. "Ontological and Ethical Allusion: Shakespeare in The Next Generation." Extrapolation 36.1 (1995): 46-54. Print.

This article discusses how the Next Generation series uses Shakespeare’s philosophies to discuss the nature of humanity. Data, the android character, represents an objective analysis of Shakespearean philosophy while other characters are more subjective. This article provides another analysis of Data and his use of Shakespeare to create a better understanding of humans.

Performances:

Patrick Stewart Full Address Oxford Union. Perf. Sir Patrick Stewart. YouTube. Oxford Union, 30 Jan. 2013. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSQw2C1CoeQ>.

This is a full video of Patrick Stewart’s address to Oxford Union in which he discusses his acting career in Shakespeare’s plays, Star Trek, and other films. His discussion gives a very interesting perspective from one of the actors of Star Trek about how his acting in Shakespeare’s plays affected his performances.

Roddenberry, Gene, prod. "The Defector." Star Trek: The Next Generation. 1 Jan. 1990. Television.

This episode of Star Tre: The Next Generation is one of the episodes that inspired me to choose this topic. The opening scene consists of a performance of a scene from Henry V as performed by a character who is an Android, using Shakespeare to try to understand the meaning of humanity. This scene is also helpful because Patrick Stewart’s character explains to the Android the reasoning behind using Shakespeare in this way. This episode is one of several where Data performs scenes from Shakespeare.