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How Othello Became Black: a Cultural History of Shakespeare‘S Moor in New York City

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How Othello Became Black: a Cultural History of Shakespeare‘S Moor in New York City HOW OTHELLO BECAME BLACK: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE‘S MOOR IN NEW YORK CITY BY ANDREW IAN CARLSON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Esther Kim Lee, Chair Assistant Professor Andrea Stevens Professor David Roediger Associate Professor Peter Davis ABSTRACT The relationship between William Shakespeare‘s black Othello and white Desdemona has held a particular hold on the American imagination for two-hundred and fifty years. During its history on the New York stage, Shakespeare‘s Othello has been a battleground for race relations and identities, which continue to be fought and negotiated today. In this study, I ask the following research question: How did productions, criticism, and popular understandings of Shakespeare‘s Othello reflect and influence the formation of racial identities in New York City from its first performance in 1751 to the performance of Paul Robeson in 1944? The looks at the ways a community used Shakespearean performance and meanings to define the boundaries and qualities of racial identities. By combining the concept of Whiteness as Property developed by legal race historian Cheryl Harris and the cultural history of the New York theatre developed by Bruce McConachie in Melodramatic Formations, I link larger trends in the history of race with trends in the cultural history of the theatre. I argue that Othello becomes the property of white Americans in the nineteenth century, conferring them financial and cultural benefits. In the 20th century, black Americans claim Othello as their property, thus challenging exclusive white ownership of the legitimate American theatre. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to Esther Kim Lee for her tireless effort and mentorship, and to my dissertation committee for inspiring me to improve my thinking and writing. Thank you to the Graduate College at the University of Illinois for honoring me with a Dissertation Completion fellowship. Thanks to my parents and my sisters. Finally, thanks to Kate, Lyda and Liam who sacrificed a lot to make this happen. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………. ….1 CHAPTER 1: THE WHITE-MADE WHITE OTHELLO…………………………………...19 CHAPTER 2: THE WHITE-MADE BLACK OTHELLO………………………………......69 CHAPTER 3: THE BLACK-MADE BLACK OTHELLO………………………………...109 CHAPTER 4: SELLING THE WHITE OTHELLO………………………………………..148 CHAPTER 5: PAUL ROBESON: PROGRESS AND REINVENTED WHITENESS........177 EPILOGUE………………………………………………………………………………... 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………..228 iv INTRODUCTION Abigail Adams was disgusted by Shakespeare‘s Othello. After seeing it played for the first time, she wrote, ―I could not separate the African color from the man, nor prevent that disgust and horror which filled my mind every time I saw him touch the gentle Desdemona.‖1 A generation later, her son John Quincy would famously agree with his mother: ―upon the stage, (Desdemona‘s) fondling with Othello is disgusting…the great moral lesson of the tragedy of ‗Othello‘ is, that black and white blood cannot be intermingled in marriage without a gross outrage upon the law of Nature.‖2 The embodiment of an interracial relationship in Othello provoked racist responses among some early-American theatergoers, but the Adams‘ comments also raise an important question: Hasn‘t Othello always been black? Starting with Richard Burbage in seventeenth century, hundreds of actors played Othello in ―blackface.‖ Many argue that Shakespeare‘s text supports Othello‘s blackness. In both the 1622 quarto and 1623 folio, Othello is called a ―black ram‖ with ―sooty‖ bosom; Othello himself declares ―I am black.‖ Today playing Othello can be a defining moment in a black actor‘s career. Paul Robeson, Earle Hyman, James Earl Jones, and Laurence Fishburne are remembered for their ability to play Shakespeare‘s most highly regarded black character. Each summer, Shakespeare festivals across America produce Othello when they have a black actor they think capable of the role. Othello‘s blackness is popularly assumed off the stage, as well. The press has referred to both Clarence Thomas and O.J. Simpson as acting like Othello. Critics, actors, and journalists have assumed the Moor‘s blackness for hundreds of years. 1 Abigail Adams. Letters of Mrs. Adams, The Wife of John Adams, Fourth Edition (Boston: Wilkins, Carter, and Company, 1848), 276. 2 John Quincy Adams. New England Magazine (9), (1835) in Americans on Shakespeare: 1776-1914, Peter Rawlings, editor (Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 1999), 65. 1 Others forcefully argue that Othello has always been, and will always be, white.3 For most of its history, Othello was played by a white man. William Shakespeare, the creator of Othello‘s story, was what we now call ―white.‖ Perhaps Othello was never about a real black man, but about a white man‘s idea of blackness. As cultural historian and Othello expert Virginia Mason Vaughan warns, this is a problem. ―When we remember that Othello is a wife murderer,‖ she writes, ―there is a danger in making the Moor stand for all black males.‖4 Does the play reinforce the idea that black people are violent and sexually unrestrained? To what extent does a contemporary production need to be aware of the play‘s white authorship? Is Othello nothing more than a culturally authorized minstrel show? Is it possible that Othello has never been and will never be truly black? Our individual answers to these questions determine how or even if we think the play should be performed today. Vaughan concluded, as many have, that black men should not perform the role, arguing that ―if the play is performed as written, I am not sure Othello‘s part should be portrayed by a black actor at all, and it should not be seen as the pinnacle of a black actor‘s career, as it so often is.‖ 5 Vaughan‘s analysis rightly challenges artists and scholars who work on the play; and it does not end the discussion of the play‘s importance. Throughout its history in New York, Othello has been about more than black pathology, in part because Othello‘s story is not just about violence, jealousy and sex. Unlike other early modern stage Moors that were indeed the personification of evil, Othello is a ―noble‖ Moor from a ―royal‖ line. Othello is about violence and sexual jealousy, but it is also about a dignified hero. This 3 For instance, see Dympna Callagan‘s essay ―Othello was a White Man‘: Properties of Race on Shakespeare‘s Stage,‖ in Alternative Shakespeares 2, ed. Terence Hawkes (London: Routledge, 1996). 4 Virginia Mason Vaughan. Performing Blackness on English Stages, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 104 5Ibid., 106. 2 mattered to black New Yorkers, many of whom saw the play as a reflection of their experiences in America. In the nineteenth century, New Yorkers did not agree on what performances of Othello meant or even if they were any good. However, many blacks and whites did share a belief that Othello and the genius who created the play were important parts of who they were. Indeed, Elise Marks has written that one constant in Othello’s performance history is that it has inspired deep passion and emotional connection among both audiences and theatre artists.6 Yet, because Shakespeare was so wildly popular, Othello was not confined to the stage. New Yorkers also used Othello’s meanings to describe contentious political and social changes in their city, especially when it came to race. Actors and audiences, abolitionists and Jacksonians, and blacks and whites fought over racial identities through Othello’s story. As Abigail and John Quincy Adams‘ comments on the play reveal, the fight got ugly. Argument and Guiding Questions We cannot know the racial messages Shakespeare ―meant‖ to communicate through Othello. Shakespeare is dead, and he never offered detailed notes about Othello‘s ―true‖ race. The work of W.B. Worthen, Leah Marcus, and Steven Orgel has effectively challenged the idea that we can arrive at the truth of an ―authentic‖ Shakespeare who authorizes our choices on stage and our literary interpretations. These scholars have detailed the collaborative nature of Elizabethan script-making and the fluidity of racial categories in the English Renaissance. In Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance, for instance, Worthen argues that ―the conditions of production in the Renaissance playhouse militate against the final ascription of an ideal, coherent, work to a single animating author, and the texts of Shakespeare‘s plays are the result of 6 For her discussion, see Elise Marks ―Othello Me:‖ Racial Drag and the Pleasure of Boundary-Crossing in Othello.‖ Comparative Drama (Spring 2001; 35), 101. 3 dialogue and collaboration, of authorial and non-authorial revision and of the demands of theatre.‖7 Despite this, assumptions about the ―author‖ have held power through American history, serving as an authorizing force for theatrical interpretations and cultural ideologies. In New York, Othello‘s race was created through a language of Shakespearean correctness that supported white power and privilege. In this study, I therefore examine not if Othello was black, but when he was black. I detail the contexts in which Othello‘s blackness was used by New Yorkers to describe their world. When did Othello‘s blackness mark him as a criminal and when was it associated with his nobility? Who had the power to decide? How did whites come to own Othello‘s story and how was their authority ultimately challenged? In answering these questions, I detail the creation of a white Shakespeare in New York. Many scholars have sampled and even condemned the racist comments of Shakespearean actors and scholars in nineteenth century America. By contrast, I investigate the language of their racism to uncover how it supports the ownership of Shakespeare and the meanings of his stories.
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