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Spite and Prejudice: Race and Racism in Shakespeare’s Othello and its Post-Colonial Adaptations Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Michael MÜNZER am Institut für Anglistik Begutachterin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Maria Löschnigg Graz, 2020 Eidesstattliche Erklärung Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und ohne fremde Hilfe verfasst, andere als die angegebenen Quellen nicht benutzt und Stellen, die den Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommen wurden, als solche kenntlich gemacht habe. Ich habe diese Diplomarbeit weder im In- oder Ausland in irgendeiner Form als Prüfungsarbeit vorgelegt. Die elektronische Version der Arbeit stimmt textlich mit der gedruckten Version überein. Graz, August 2020, Michael Münzer Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Maria Löschnigg. All throughout my studies, you have been an academic role model. You (re)kindled my love for literature and provided me with the necessary ‘tools’ to pursue this diploma thesis. Since the moment I started writing my thesis, you have had a sympathetic ear for my questions and concerns. I could not have asked for a better advisor. Thank you! I would also like to thank my family. Mom and Dad, thank you so much for your continued moral, financial, and emotional support – not only in the process of writing my thesis, but all throughout my studies. This accomplishment would have not been possible without you! Opa und Oma, vielen Dank für eure andauernde Unterstützung. Ich hoffe, ihr seid stolz auf mich. Münzer Opa und Münzer Oma, ihr hattet einen großen Anteil daran, dass ich studieren und Lehrer werden wollte. Leider ist es uns nicht vergönnt, den Abschluss meines Studiums gemeinsam zu feiern. Ich weiß, ihr hättet euch sehr für mich gefreut! Marlene, thank you for always believing in me. Your unconditional love and support mean so much to me. I love you! Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank Christina, Jakob, and my other ‘partners in crime’. You have made my time at university an absolute treat and I truly appreciate our friendship. I will always cherish those memories. Table of Contents Introduction 1 1 The Making of Othello: Historical and Intertextual Influences 6 1.1 Elizabethan ‘Zeitgeist’ in a Venetian Society – The Play in its Historical Context 11 1.2 Foreign Lands, Foreign Peoples: Stereotypes, Preoccupations, and Encounters with the African Continent 13 1.2.1 The Term ‘Moor’ as a Highly Ambiguous Denomination for People of Colour 15 2 Experiencing Othello: Stage Tradition and Receptive History 18 2.1 ‘Black’, ‘White’, ‘Tawny’? ‘Moorishness’ and the Casting of Othello throughout the Play’s Performance History 22 2.2. “What you know, you know”. How Racial Anxiety and Perceptions of ‘the Moor’ Shape(d) the Reception of Othello 28 2.2.1. Othello’s Critical Afterlife from the 19th Century Onwards: (Re)Defining the ‘Moor’ 33 3 What is Said, What is Meant: The Analysis of Racist Discourse in Othello 39 3.1 ‘Let’s agree to disagree’: Interpretations of Race and Racism in Othello 42 3.2. Who is Racist and Why? A Contemporary Reading of Racist Discourse in Othello 45 3.2.1 Black vs. White – ‘Foul’ vs. ‘Fair’: Colour as a Vehicle to Communicate (Racial) Difference 54 4 Post-Colonial Engagements: (Re)Considering Shakespeare’s Othello 56 4.1. Repetition, Resistance, Reinterpretation: A New Othello? 59 4.2. Performative Counter Discourse and Othello on Stage and Screen 65 4.3. Shakespeare and Othello in the ‘Land of the Free’ 72 4.4 “I must write to save my own life” – Exploring the Effects of Race and Sex on African Americans in Harlem Duet 77 4.4.1 ‘The Nightmare and the Dream’ Narrated in Harlem Duet 79 Conclusion 93 Works Cited 96 Introduction According to Andreas Mahler, Shakespeare’s plays have always tested the limits of early- modern consciousness. Debating societal, gender-specific, and global norms, they rarely provided answers, but rather contraposed ideological attitudes. Towards the end of the 16th century, English drama has become an agency of candour and ambivalence and one could very well make the argument that at least the aspect of ambivalence has carried over to the receptive history of Shakespeare’s plays (cf. Mahler 2018: 318f). Perhaps, it is the equivocation of Shakespeare’s works which has allowed his creative legacy to stand the test of time. Especially his tragedies seem to have frequently ‘struck a nerve’ as they have often responded to contemporary concerns and developments. Mahler explains Shakespeare’s continuing power to impress readers, audiences and critics alike as follows: Shakespeare ist Theatermann, nicht Ideologe […]. Gerade hierin liegt die Wirkmacht seine Werkes: Nicht in der Überzeugungskraft der Antworten, sondern im steten Angebot erneuter Durchspielbarkeit der Fragen – der Fragen nach Sozialordnung, Geschlechterverhältnis, der Begegnung mit dem Anderen, der Leistung von Fiktion. (2018: 319) For generations of post-Romantic intellectuals, the “existential prison of Hamlet was the place [which represented] the angst ridden- image of [their] own alienation” (Neill 2006: 1). In the aftermath of World War II, “it was the wasteland of King Lear that provided a mirror for humanity living under the shadow of holocaust and nuclear devastation” (Neill 2006: 1). As the Age of Imperialism seemed to expire and the Empire’s façade, amidst human rights movements and nationalist ambitions, slowly but surely began to crumble, it was Othello which caught the contemporary ‘zeitgeist’. Towards the end of the 20th century and fuelled by progressive and anti-imperial criticism, Neill points out that “critics and directors alike began to trace in the cultural, religious and ethnic animosities of [Othello’s] Mediterranean setting, the genealogy of the racial conflicts that fractured their own societies” (2006: 1). In the words of Edward Pechter, “Othello has become the Shakespearean tragedy of choice for the present generation. [It is] the tragedy that speaks most directly and powerfully to current interests.” (1999: 2) Unsurprisingly, what Ingrid Hotz-Davis refers to as the “sorgfältig gezeichnete psychologisch ausformulierte Bestandsaufnahme des Entstehens einer Eifersucht und des Zerfalls einer Beziehung” (2018: 470) has inspired the long tradition of reading Othello primarily as a ‘domestic tragedy’. By the 1980s, however, the social and political implications of the play have gained considerable scholarly attention. Ever since, researchers and critics of Othello have 1 been focusing on four main subjects of Shakespeare’s tragedy: global political issues of the late 16th and early 17th century, such as the conflict between Christianity and Islam, the disintegration of feudalism and its norms of behaviour, gender-relations in a patriarchal society, and early-modern-age racism (cf. Schülting 2018: 539). Against the backdrop of the long tradition of (scholarly) engagement with the play, particularly the history of the examination of aspects of race and racism in Othello has been one of surprising briefness. Even though issues of race and racism have resurfaced from time to time throughout Othello’s theatrical and critical afterlife, a noticeable and sustainable treatment of the play’s ‘race theme’ has only come to the fore in contemporary, and especially in post-colonial criticism. Thus, the long-standing absence of scholarly interest in issues of race and racism throughout Othello’s stage, receptive, and scholarly history has to be considered one of the most striking aspects in the engagement with Shakespeare’s Othello – especially in consideration of the play’s highly racist performative and receptive tradition. Given that Othello undoubtedly responds to issues of race and racism in one way or the other, a possible starting question to an investigation of this aspect in the play could perhaps read as follows: Is Othello racist? This is no question I even dare to attempt answering in this diploma thesis, however, as I personally believe that there is no definite answer to be found. Othello simply does not allow for easy binaries. Virginia Vaughan might have already found the fitting response to an unanswerable question: “I think this play is racist and I think it’s not […]” (1996: 69f). Another important question might be whether it even bears any sense to talk about race in Othello? As Neill points out, “to talk about race in Othello is to fall into anachronism; yet not to talk about it is to ignore something fundamental about a play that has rightly come to be identified as a foundational text in the emergence of modern European racial consciousness […]” (1998: 361). Hence, one finds him/herself in a precarious situation as Othello clearly deals with issues of race and furthermore features characters and speech acts that, by ‘modern standards’, would most definitely be categorized as highly racist. Othello, however, was written and plays in a time when modern categories of race did not exist, and racist or highly prejudiced behaviour against ‘racial Others’ was not (yet) considered problematic. In Shakespeare’s time, Germans were a race, Florentines were a race, and so were ‘Moors’, and each of them possessed certain traits that distinguished them from the English. As the title indicates, this diploma thesis investigates race and racism in Othello. My goal is to not only deal with the text itself, but also take into account crucial stages in the staging and reception of Shakespeare’s play. My thesis will be founded on three crucial realisations. First, 2 Othello is a product of its time and as such remains firmly located in a certain historical context. Shakespeare lived and wrote at a time when European colonialism was in its relatively early stages, English mercantile and colonial projects were only starting to emerge, and a European racial consciousness began to develop.
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