Race and Patriarchy in Othello
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v11i0.44Keywords:
Blacks in Shakespeare, LiteratureAbstract
This paper argues that both patriarchy and racism shape the dynamics of Othello. Othello's blackness affects his behaviour toward his wife as well as his attitude to himself. Desdemona's pariah status as a result of marrying a black man partially accounts for her murder. On the other hand, Othello, as oppressed Other, is also, in his role as a male within the patriarchal tradition, the oppressor. Othello's need to establish and maintain hegemony over his wife makes his behaviour no different from that of other men operating in the framework of patriarchy. Ultimately, Othello is as much a man as he is a black man.References
Adler, D. (1974). The rhetoric of Black and White in Othello. Shakespeare Quarterly, 25(2), 248-257. https://doi.org/10.2307/2868467
Aubrey, J. R. (1993). Race and the spectacle of the monstrous in Othello. CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History, 22(3), 221-238.
Bate, J. (1989). Ovid and the mature tragedies: Metamorphosis in Othello and King Lear. Shakespeare Survey, 41, 133-144. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521360714.012
Berry, E. (1990). Othello's alienation. Studies in English literature, 1500-1900, 30(2), 315-333. https://doi.org/10.2307/450520
Bradshaw, G. (1992). Obeying the time in Othello: A myth and the mess it made*. English Studies, 73(3), 211-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/00138389208598807
Cantor, P. A. (1990). Othello: The erring barbarian among the supersubtle Venetians. Southwest Review, 75(3), 296-319. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43470186
Cohen, D. (1987). Patriarchy and jealousy in Othello and the Winter’s Tale. Modern Language Quarterly, 48(3), 207-223. https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-48-3-207
Danson, L. (1994). «That catastrophe is a nuptial»: The space of masculine desire in Othello, Cymbeline, and the Winter's Tale: Shakespeare and sexuality. Shakespeare Survey, (46), 69-79. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521450276.007
Grennan, E. (1987). The women's voices in "Othello": Speech, song, silence. Shakespeare Quarterly, 38(3), 275-292. https://doi-org.cob.idm.oclc.org/10.2307/2870503
Little, A. L., Jr., “An essence that’s not seen”: The primal scene of racism in Othello, Shakespeare Quarterly, 44(3), 304-324. https://doi.org/10.2307/2871421
McEachern, C. (1988). Fathering herself: A source study of Shakespeare's feminism. Shakespeare Quarterly, 39(3), 269-290. https://doi.org/10.2307/2870927
Neill, M. (1989). Unproper beds: Race, adultery, and the hideous in Othello. Shakespeare Quarterly, 40(4), 383-412. https://doi.org/10.2307/2870608
Orkin, M. (1987). Othello and the 'Plain face' of racism. Shakespeare Quarterly, 38(2), 166-188. https://doi.org/10.2307/2870559
Riefer, M. (1984). “Instruments of some more mightier member”: The constriction of female power in Measure for Measure. Shakespeare Quarterly, 35(2), 157-169. https://doi.org/10.2307/2869924
Roberts, J. A. (1986). Making a woman and other institutionalized diversions. Shakespeare Quarterly, 37(3), 366-369. https://doi.org/10.2307/2870105
Singh, J. (1994). Othello's identity, postcolonial theory, and contemporary African rewritings of Othello. In M. Hendricks & P. Parker (Eds.), Women. race, and writing in the early modern period (pp. 287-299). Routledge.
Vanita, R. (1994). "Proper" men and "fallen" women: The unprotectedness of wives in Othello. Studies in English literature, 1500-1900, 34(2), 341-356. https://doi.org/10.2307/450905
