Is a Didactic Series of Shakespearean Plays Opportune in Romania?
Is a Didactic Series of Shakespearean Plays Opportune in Romania?

Summary/Abstract: When a teacher of English is tempted to favour the methodological view that praises, above all, the language, i.e. the very words of Shakespeare’s works, and when he/she holds dear the possibility of analytically and closely studying the texts of the great bard as instances of literary achievement, the most natural choice – and didactic course of action – seems to be to select the crucial samples of Shakespearean texts, and try to channel (or rather, funnel) them towards didactic uses, or classroom activities. The tradition established by such fine Romanian scholars of Shakespeare (among other masters of English literature) as the late professors Andrei Bantaş and Leon Leviţchi, which presupposed a close intertwining of text analysis, British civilisation and English language via the study of the literary text, still represents, in the view of the authors of the present contribution, a rewarding path to follow. That is why they proposed to continue, in a modest manner and in close association with the students’ interests and cultural preferences, the efforts meant to generate novel, complex didactic materials, which could facilitate and give a fresh boost to Shakespearean (and more widely, literary) studies in this country. Concretely, they are trying to publish, at long last, a series of Shakespearean texts, representing a complex didactic edition of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, starting with the romantic comedy ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’. The book will imply the same kind of methodical treatment of the texts included, which means a thematic introduction and a complex, linguistically- and culturally-biased explanatory apparatus. The starting point of the intended series was a comedy because the authors believed a Shakespearean romantic comedy lends itself to reading more easily and boasts a remarkably rich verbal inventiveness. The structure of the volume comprises: (1) an introduction; (2) the original text of the play; (3) the literary translation of the English text; (4) explanatory notes, relevant of both semantics and grammar; (5) vocabulary notes for each page, appended to the text; (6) the phonetic transcription of the English text; (7) a final glossary, incorporating all the separate meanings of the words and phrases glossed in the explanatory notes / footnotes below the text of the play; (8) a selection of critical quotations, preceding the Introduction to the book; (9) a selected critical bibliography; (10) as an optional addendum, a selection of literary ‘gems’ from the text, with proposals for individual study and analysis.

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