Interdisciplinary Uses of Digital Editions for Italian High School Students. Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline' and the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre

Just as digital technologies have become an essential part of research in the Humanities field, digital editing of early modern texts has undergone considerable changes. The breadth of online materials and scholarly reflections on the rediscovery of Renaissance textuality as intrinsically fluid and unstable have paved the way for new theories and practices of editing that can also be used to help digital natives approach Shakespeare’s multi-layered textual world. In this paper, I will outline the main features and learning objectives of an experimental template that will be made available on the website of the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre Archive. It will consist of new digital editions of selected scenes from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and from some of its presumed Italian narrative sources. The interface will show parallel texts of both modernised-spelling editions and facsimile reproductions; all texts will be TEI-based and interconnected through XML-encoded hyperlinks. These digital editions will be supported by critical apparatuses, learning activities for target groups of students and worksheets for their teachers. Students’ resources will include linguistic exercises and activities aimed to foster their reflection on Shakespeare and cultural exchanges in the European Renaissance (as well as today), and to promote a more inclusive, intercultural and interdisciplinary view of Shakespearean texts and literature in general. Teachers will instead be provided with tips for class debate and interdisciplinary learning units also to be employed within CLIL thematic modules. The template is, therefore, dual in scope, as it is meant to develop both enduring understanding and specific linguistic, cultural, and digital skills. Especially now that the digital classroom has become the daily reality of millions of students all over world, an increasingly virtual and blended learning environment requires students not only to acquire new digital competences, but also to learn how to use digital technologies with greater awareness and critical thinking.