Thursday, July 03, 2008

HyperHamlet

http://www.hyperhamlet.unibas.ch/index.php

Not quite sure about the usefulness of this tool, but it sure represents lots of work.  Work your way through the script of Hamlet, pointing out other literary references to the text.  For instance on one hand you've got James Joyce making use of the text "For this relief much thanks."  But later in the same scene, linked to the line "Not a mouse stirring", we find a Charles Schultz reference to Sally reading "The Night Before Christmas" and coming to the "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" line.

The site appears wiki-driven, so the entries are all from users trying to help.  I appreciate the attempt, but like I said, not really sure what you'd *do* with it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can see how this might seem kind of useless, but aas a teacher, I can tell you that this is a godsend. I spend a lot of time trying to convince students and colleagues (even my content supervisor) that Shakespeare is relevant and worth reading and seeing. I try to do that bu pointing out references in popular culture and other literature. This makes my life so much easier!!!

Duane Morin said...

Well, I was just worried about the quality control. "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" is not really a Hamlet reference ("Not a mouse stirring"). That's like saying everyone in the last 400 years who's said "Who's there?" is quoting Bernardo. But I suppose you can certainly pick out the more obvious and accurate ones.

Ray Eston Smith Jr said...

Please take a look at my Hyper-Hamlet. It's an annotated Hamlet with hypertext reference to OTHER LINES WITHIN HAMLET. I don't know if this has been done anywhere else, but I believe it is an invaluable tool for understanding Hamlet.

Smith's Hyper Hamlet
An Annotated Hamlet with Hypertext Links to Related Lines, Motifs, and Essays
- http://www.thyorisons.com/