Race and the spectacle of the monstrous in 'Othello.'

From: CLIO | Date: March 22, 1993| Author: | Copyright information

William Shakespeare's Othello character is constructed and presented to the audience in a manner that associates black people with monsters, a common representation in Shakespeare's time. Tabloid periodicals and travel literature often portrayed the products of unnatural unions as black and attributed to African peoples customs such as cannibalism. Othello is referred to in beastly terms before he appears on stage, and there is an extended metaphor in the play of the gestation and birth of evil thoughts in the protagonist's mind. Shakespeare played off these perceptions of monstrosity to ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

Kolin, Philip C., ed. Othello: New Critical Essays.(Book Review)
; KOLIN, Philip C., ed. Othello: New Critical Essays. New York: Routledge...Kolin's recent collection of essays on Othello could be considered a similar guide...Olivier's highly artificial, blackface Othello seems puzzling. Certainly, this actor...
THEATER REVIEW; A dazzling, dynamic Othello'; Outstanding cast imparts appropriate sense of urgency
; ...BTW and Epstein have returned with an "Othello" that is a model of what a contemporary...Molina as the jealousy-wracked general, Othello, and the two principal women of the cast...performance by Boston actor Trey Burvant as Othello's unfortunate lieutenant, Cassio, and...
A strong 'Othello' with room to grow.(ARTS)(THEATER)
; ...WASHINGTON TIMES When the play opens, Othello (Craig Wallace) has married the beautiful...her father (Lawrence Redmond) charges Othello with witchcraft and brings him before...consented to the marriage. Iago (Trey Lyford), Othello's ensign, has lost a promotion to the...
Vesalius' 'Fabrica' and Shakespeare's 'Othello': anatomy, gender and the narrative production of meaning. (Andreas Vesalius, William Shakespeare)
; ...Shakespearean public theater with a discussion of Othello, that play in which knowledge, skepticism...under skepticism. (2) Cavell's reading of Othello is part of what he calls thinking of tragedy...For Cavell, the problem of knowledge for Othello consists of his refusal to accept the...
Andrew Davies' updated 'Othello' cuts to the heart of the Bard's classic.(Scene)
; Masterpiece Theatre: Othello. Airs Monday at 9 p.m. on WGBH (Ch...out of four) Andrew Davies' take on Othello is terrifying. William Shakespeare's...raid and the budding romance of John Othello (Eamonn Walker) and Dessie (Keeley Hawes...
Director Sees Parallels in `Othello' and O.J. Case
; ...writer named William Shakespeare penned "Othello" - a play that bears a striking similarity...rehearsal for their upcoming production of "Othello," which opens Oct. 22 and runs through...the first time really, that this man (Othello) should actually come from Africa and...
A different 'Othello,' but still Shakespeare
; IMPACT Theatre's "Othello" will go down in local theater lore as the one with the lesbians...Val's Subterranean Theatre in Berkeley. But overall, this "Othello" feels like, well, "Othello" minus the intensity. The gimmick here is that Othello, the...
Bidding goodbye to the plumed troop and the big wars: the presence of 'Othello' in 'A Farewell to Arms.'
; ...soldier suddenly turned idle civilian, to 'Othello with his occupation one' (257). Frederic...the more shocking lines in the novel: 'Othello was a nigger,' he says, brutally dismissing...comparison. He then adds that he is unlike Othello not only because he is not black, but...
'OTHELLO' ACTRESS EXPLORES THE COMPLEXITY OF DESDEMONA.(Living)
; ...middle of a man's world in William Shakespeare's Othello. On the one hand, in this tragedy that opens...overpowering jealousy and bombasts of her husband Othello. And, although not as loud as Othello, there's the insidious plotting of the arch...
Three-hour `Othello' is starkly engaging.(NEWS)
; ...Rohan Preston; Staff Writer By the end of the first act of Othello, Iago has convinced his boss, the general after whom the play is named, that Othello's wife is a cheating whore. Othello, enraged, expresses profound gratitude to Iago for looking...