Retrospective 2023: Thanks for your support!

2023 was a good year for the “Hamlet’s Bible” blog, and I’m most grateful to my readers who follow my posts, either through the blog itself, or through other social media.

- The blog received 21.3k new views in 2023 out of a total of 56k views since January of 2019.

- These figures do not include views between June 2017-December 2018 when I was initially posting every week on LinkedIn (before the switch to the blogger platform).

In early January, I posted about "13 Handles on Hamlet's Mousetrap," a post that had many views:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/13-handles-on-hamlets-mousetrap.html

In 2023, I did two longer series of posts:

- In late January, 2023, I began a 12-part series of posts about Hamlet in 3.2 after The Mousetrap, ironically comparing himself to the boy Jesus, lost and found in the temple, amusing and astonishing the temple elders and his parents. This biblical allusion had not been identified by the major scholars of Bible and Shakespeare through Naseeb Shaheen (1999). The series included consideration of artistic representations of the scripture scene, mentions in official homilies used in Shakespeare’s time, consideration of why this allusion may have been missed, and similar thematic elements in other Shakespeare plays.
- The INDEX of posts in this series on Hamlet as the boy Jesus can be found here:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html

In April 2023, I presented a paper at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in Minneapolis, which was especially exciting. I mentioned in in a blog post here: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/03/saa-conference-2023-in-minneapolis-mn.html

I participated in a Shakespeare/Mother's day panel discussion courtesy of New York Shakespeare and host Rodney Hakim:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/05/mothers-day-deep-dives-via-new-york.html

- In June, 2023, I began a 29(+?)-part series of posts about Ophelia, beginning with the mystery of her death, but also exploring many other aspects of her character and other scholarship on Ophelia. I realized that, in comparison to biblical allusions in the play, I had neglected many aspects of Ophelia’s important role and of scholarly efforts to grapple with her character. I recognize that many others are far more expert on the topic than I am, but  this was a very exciting series for me.
- The INDEX of posts for my Ophelia series can be found here:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html

Two of the most popular new posts of the year included one exploring a new insight about why Gertrude jumps to the conclusion in her closet that her son Hamlet may be seeking to murder her. That post can be found here:
"See the inmost part of you": Gertrude's literalism, fear of evisceration in 3.4 / March 27, 2023
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/03/see-inmost-part-of-you-gertrudes.html

A second very popular new post was about shepherds in Shakespeare, Oedipus, and the gospel tale of Herod the great slaughtering of the innocent boys. That post can be found here:
  Shepherds in Shakespeare, Oedipus, Hamlet, and the Bible / December 24, 2023
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/12/shepherds-in-shakespeare-oedipus-hamlet.html

I greatly enjoyed giving a presentation for post graduates, N.S.S. College, Kerala, India, 7 December, 2023 (transcript here): https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/12/transcript-presentation-for-post.html
Thank you to all of you who read and support my work. It motivates me to continue researching and writing, and I am very grateful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME on a one-time "tip" basis on Ko-Fi:
https://ko-fi.com/pauladrianfried
IF YOU WOULD PREFER to support me on a REGULAR basis,
you may do so on Ko-Fi, or here on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/PaulAdrianFried
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
To find the subscribe button, go to the home page: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/
see the = drop-down menu with three lines in the upper left.
From there you can subscribe to posts and comments by filling out the contact form.