Use your assigned critical article to address the questions below. Work with your group on the questions below.
You may divide up the work among your members if you wish, but everyone should be conversant with all of the elements of the assignment;
if there is anything you are having trouble with or are uncertain about, use your group members as a first resource.
Group A: Habib. "Othello, Sir Peter Negro, and the Blacks of Early Modern England: Colonial Inscription and Postcolonial Excavation."
Group B: Smith, Ian. "Othello's Black Hankerchief."
Group C: Slater, Michael. "Desdemona’s Divided Duty: Gender and Courtesy in Othello."
What types of pimary and secondary sources does this author use? List specific examples of each type and indicate where they appear in the article.
For practice, list how you would parenthetically cite a quotation from the article. What about a quotation of a quotation used in the article?
What would the Works Cited entry for your article look like?
How does the critic use primary sources, and what is the rationale given for choosing the sources used?
How and when/where in the argument does the critic use secondary sources, and how is the author's argument differentiated from the arguments of others?
What is the thesis of this article--identify and explain
What are the primary subpoints in the argument? What is the structure of these subpoints--create a brief outline to explain.
List the elements of Othelleo that this article engages with:
List elements of the play that this article does not address:
Background
Dating and Texts of the Play
The composition of Othello has been dated to between mid-1601 and mid-1602 (British Library). There are two different published versions
of the play, both appearing about two decades after the play was written, so "there has emerged no consensus among editors about what kind
of manuscripts can be imagined to lie behind the two early printed texts" (Mowat and Werstine xlv). The first is a Quarto version of 1622;
the second is the First Folio version of 1623. The Folio version "has about 160 lines that do not appear in the Quarto" and "lacks a scattering
of about a dozen lines or part-lines that are to be found in the Quarto" (xlv). Because the Folio seems to be the more inclusive text, most
modern editors prefer this version. Our course text is based on the Folio version of Othello, but with reference to the Quarto.
See pages xlvii-xlviii of the editors introduction for an explanation of when the Quarto reading is added/preferred and how the differences are marked.
Shakespeare's Sources
Shakespeare's main source was Giambattista Cinzio Giraldi's De gli Hecatommithi, first published in 1565. It is not certain whether Shakespeare
used the Italian original or a French translation that was available in 1583, or a lost English translation (British Library). See pages 169-170 in the
Bedford Companion to Shakespeare for an excerpt from this source.
Shakespeare may also have consulted John Pory's A Geographical Historie of Africa (1600), which was a translation of Leo Africanus for
information about Africa and the depiction of Othello's past.
Important Themes
Unlike many of Shakespeare's tragedies and histories that have broad scope and wide-ranging social consequences of the protagonists fall, Othello is a much more
personal and concentrated tragedy. Othello himself is not a king or emperor; he is a general, who, in the larger scheme of his society, is easily replaced.
Additionally, he is exceptional--a "Moor of Venice"--his very existence as a person of status in Venetian society is an exception to social norms; thus his
removal might be seen as a restoration of order.
The liminal nature of Othello as both outsider and insider continues the theme of social outsiders that we have examined during the term. Consider Othello
as an outsider and in comparison to other outsiders we have studied--particularly Shylock in Merchant of Venice. In what ways is Othello like
these other characters? Different? What kind of agency does he exercise? How does he maintain his status? What social conclusions are drawn about his fall?
Othello is also a play that explores the nature of evil. The character of Iago is often considered a prime example of evil for evil's sake.
Consider the various motives that Iago provides for his behavior and be alert to differences in his explanations to other characters and his soliloquies.
Are any of these motives convincing? What unspoken motivations might there be? What is the significance of a lack of clear motive in the play's dissection of evil?
Deception and trust are values that are pitted against each other throughout this play. Consider the bases characters use for trusting one another
as well as information/evidence. Think too about the modes of deception used and how and why they are effective. What is required for the truth to
be revealed in this text, and why are these conditions significant?
Desdemona from this story has become a famous symbol of innocence and faithfulness. Yet many commentators have also noted the ambivalent foundations
of the romance between Othello and Desdemona. Consider the romantic plot in this play carefully; what does each character have to gain from this romance?
Why elope? How do the foundations of the relationship potentially contribute to the failure of their marriage?
Works Consulted
Bevington, David. The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 4th ed. New York: Longman, 1997. Pp. 178-82.
British Library. "Shakespeare's Quartos: Othello." N.d.
Giraldi, Giambattista Cinzio. De gli Hecatommithi Trans. J. E. Taylor (1855). 8 Dec. 2003.
Mowat, Barbara A. and Paul Werstine. "An Introduction to this Text." Othello. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992. Pp. xlvii-l.
