2017-2018 Faculty Research Grants
Vanessa Corredera (English)
“Woke” Shakespeare: Racial Discourse and Representation in Modern Othellos.
Peter Erickson calls Othello Shakespeare’s emissary to the world while Francesca Royster asserts that Americans use Othello as a means of understanding race and Otherness in society. Though differing in scope, these statements present a similar view of the play and its eponymous protagonist: due to its depiction of a black Other in white society, Shakespeare’s famous tragedy has both an enduring international and nationally specific appeal. The tacit idea underlying these statements is the understanding that Othello remains relevant for contemporary culture since its exploration of the creation of self and Other through white Venetians and the blackamoor Othello speaks to ongoing discussions about race, identity, and alterity catalyzed by black masculinity so prevalent in our modern world.
My project focuses on precisely how and why Othello continues to speak to the 20th and 21st centuries. My book examines contemporary Western, and predominantly American, appropriations of Othello from 1994—when questions of black masculinity took on a national and international fervor thanks to the O.J. Simpson trial—until 2016, a year in which we celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death while reconsidering our notions of a post-racial America, and indeed, global world. I explore the intersection of early modern (an alternative term for the English Renaissance) and modern conceptions of race, gender, and identity. By turning to a wide range of “texts” that adapt the play or that reference the play and/or its characters—performances, novels, film, graphic novels, podcasts, etc.—I consider how current conceptions of race and gender shape the depiction, significance, and deployment of Othello. Specifically, I interrogate how adaptive choices privilege particular contemporary discourses about race and gender. In other words, I examine how adaptors use Shakespeare to promote and authorize certain racial discourses, concerns, and representations. I argue, then, that in contrast to views that understand Shakespeare as incompatible with contemporary race theory, Shakespeare is in fact a strategic tool for attempting to shape and privilege particular racial discourses over others, at times in ways that promote issues of social justice, and at times in ways racially regressive.