The making and unmaking of a colonial subject: Othello

• Autores: Ana María Manzanas Calvo
• Localización: Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies, ISSN 1137-6368, ISSN-e 2386-4834, Nº 17, 1996, págs. 189-206
• Idioma: español
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • Taking as a starting point the fact that Othello's colour is politically and ideologically relevant in the development of the play, this article offers a reading of Othello as a tragedy of race. The article reviews key texts where the stereotype of the black man as a "pagan conjurer" of beastly living and monstrous sexuality crystallized, and traces the presence of the stereotype throughout the play. Othello's condition as a black man--whatever shade of blackness he was--is further complicated by his condition as a colonial subject who wishes to adopt western culture. The play dramatizes the apparently unlimited possibilities of self-fashioning available to man in the Renaissance, only to deconstruct this optimistic self-fashioning or self-creation when race issues come into play. It is Iago's exploitation of the politics of colour and of Othello's double nature (proper to a colonial subject) that brings about Othello's downfall.