Essay from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, University of Cambridge (English ), course: Supervision: Fitzwilliam Collge: Shakespeare, language: English, abstract: Shakespeare’s Othello has caught people’s attention for more than four hundred years now. This is may be true for many other Shakespearean plays as well, but Othello was exceptionally popular at its time of origin and is not less so today. Reasons for this are probably manifold, but the notions of gender, sexuality, status and race which are still very current issues might contribute to this timeless and universal appreciation. The latter is at the focus of this essay.

When decorated Moorish general Othello appoints Cassio as his chief lieutenant, Iago gets jealous and plots revenge, alleging that Othello's wife, a much younger white woman, is having an affair with Cassio. In many ways, Shakespeare's Othello remains a potent expression of race and racism three-hundred years after its publication. This volume offers compelling interpretations of the actions and the characters that have made this play so controversial. Essays discuss the question of Othello's color, the contradictory notions of black and white in the play, sexuality and racial difference, and whether Desdemona's marriage to Othello incites racism. Contributors include Ania Loomba, Peter Ackroyd, and Doris Adler.

A discussion of inter-racial sexual relations in Anglo-American literature from the English Renaissance to today.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: This term paper seeks to dislocate traces of racism within the characters of Iago, Othello, and Desdemona in Shakespeare's "Othello". By scrutinizing both overt and covert forms of xenophobia, it tries to explain how and why the play came to its tragic ending. In 1994, Nelson Mandela wrote in his autobiography that "no one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion" and that, consequently, "people must learn to hate". By itself, this is a simple statement but it is also egregious in the way it makes us understand. There is nothing it could not explain, no dispute it could not illuminate. And even though Mr. Mandela had originally formulated his statement with regard to Apartheid, it fits extraordinarily well to racism in Shakespeare’s "Othello". Judging from Michael Neill’s investigations into the subject of notions of human difference in early modern societies, 16th century Venice had a considerably open attitude towards foreigners of any kind, with a great deal of cultural exchange taking place between people of every colour and every religion. By the beginning of the 17th century, however, this started to change: as the number of encounters with foreign cultures increased, "color emerg[ed] as the most important criterion for defining otherness" (Neill). As Mandela would have put it, Venetians started to learn hating others in behalf of their skin colour. And precisely this kind of development is illustrated in Othello: the Moor, who is actually a prime example for successful integration, has to endure an increasing degree of enmities and discriminations as racist sentiments begin to emerge in Venetian society — sentiments even Othello himself cannot resist.

To Die Upon a Kiss--Othello is Shakespeare's great tragic play of love trust and deceit. Iago an officer of the watch sets out to destroy Othello by convincing him that his young bride Desdemona has betrayed him and is secretly in love with another man.What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?I saw't not thought it not it harm'd not me;I slept the next night well was free and merry;I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips.He that is robb'd not wanting what is stol'n Let him not know't and he's not robb'd at all.

The "Ethiope," the "tawny Tartar," the "woman blackamoore," and "knotty Africanisms"—allusions to blackness abound in Renaissance texts. Kim F. Hall's eagerly awaited book is the first to view these evocations of blackness in the contexts of sexual politics, imperialism, and slavery in early modern England. Her work reveals the vital link between England's expansion into realms of difference and otherness—through exploration and colonialism-and the highly charged ideas of race and gender which emerged. How, Hall asks, did new connections between race and gender figure in Renaissance ideas about the proper roles of men and women? What effect did real racial and cultural difference have on the literary portrayal of blackness? And how did the interrelationship of tropes of race and gender contribute to a modern conception of individual identity? Hall mines a wealth of sources for answers to these questions: travel literature from Sir John Mandeville's Travels to Leo Africanus's History and Description of Africa; lyric poetry and plays, from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest to Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness; works by Emilia Lanyer, Philip Sidney, John Webster, and Lady Mary Wroth; and the visual and decorative arts. Concentrating on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Hall shows how race, sexuality, economics, and nationalism contributed to the formation of a modern ( white, male) identity in English culture. The volume includes a useful appendix of not readily accessible Renaissance poems on blackness.

An electrifying new study that investigates the challenges of the Bard’s inconsistencies and flaws, and focuses on revealing—not resolving—the ambiguities of the plays and their changing topicality A genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no other. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality, and literary mastery. A man who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else. Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of. But it doesn’t tell us the whole truth. So much of what we say about Shakespeare is either not true, or just not relevant. In This Is Shakespeare, Emma Smith—an intellectually, theatrically, and ethically exciting writer—takes us into a world of politicking and copycatting, as we watch Shakespeare emulating the blockbusters of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd (the Spielberg and Tarantino of their day), flirting with and skirting around the cutthroat issues of succession politics, religious upheaval, and technological change. Smith writes in strikingly modern ways about individual agency, privacy, politics, celebrity, and sex. Instead of offering the answers, the Shakespeare she reveals poses awkward questions, always inviting the reader to ponder ambiguities.