Interpretations
John Cleese on why he would like to play the
part of Claudius in Hamlet (Guardian, 31 January, 1997)
"Why? Because my theory is that's what Hamlet
is about; not this introspective little ****** whingeing on about his personal
problem, but about the guy who is trying to run the ******* country, trying to
keep the Norwegians out. I should love to play him as this high powered
executive who just can't stand Hamlet.
Whereas most secondary pupils are or become
aware that there are different ways of "reading" a play, I am less sure that
they are aware that there are different ways of "reading" history. As the
research of Lee, Ashby and Dickinson has pointed out, for some pupils, the past
is simply "what happened", and that historical sources are a true and
unproblematic record of the past: "Many stories are told, and they may
contradict, compete with or complement one another, but this means that
students should be equipped to deal with such relationships, not that any old
story will do...... students who understand sources as information about
the past are helpless when confronted by contradictory sources." (Lee and
Ashby, 2000, Progression in historical understanding, 7-14, in P. Seixas, P.
Stearns and S. Wineburg, Teaching, Knowing and Learning history, New
York, New York University Press).)
This ties in with the requirement that pupils
should be taught 'How and why historical events, people, situations and changes
have been interpreted in different ways (KSU 3a), and 'to evaluate
interpretations' (KSU 3b).
Further suggestions
for approaching interpretations
Further suggestions for
reading on interpretations
Examples for teaching
interpretations
Becket and interpretations materials
Bonnie Prince Charlie materials
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