Othello And The Western Canonical Presentation Of His Race...

Othello and the western canonical presentation of his race, has been reproduced numerous times throughout history. The post-colonial writings of Morrison and Chatterjee tackle how Othello and the presentation of his race are exploited as a form of entertainment. They write back and explore the relationship between Othello’s racial identity and the harm viewing race as a form of entertainment can have culturally in a globalised world. Othello is presented as a story devised by Desdemona in Morrison’s play. He claims ‘[w]hat excited you was my strange story†¦ fantastic adventures, stories of freaks and miracles’ (Morrison and TraoreÃŒ  51) and that she ‘fancied the idea’ (50) where he is reduced to a tale she has devised. He becomes a concept which belongs to Desdemona and like a story, his character, becomes a tool for her entertainment. Othello loses ownership in the presentation of his culture as the perception of his culture becomes her (Western) view. Desdemona’s entertaining fantasy of Othello concerns the exotic. It is presented negatively, as his entertainment value relates to the bizarre being ‘strange [and full of] freaks and miracles’ (51); it echoes the idea of a freak show exploiting abnormalities. The image of ‘the exotic foreigner’ (50) is further developed too by Desdemona’s own view of Othello with his ‘sw ord at his side (50)’. While conversing with Othello she avoids using personal pronouns and engaging the physical man before her to her ownShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s Much Ado About Nothing And King Lear3685 Words   |  15 Pagesâ€Å"Much Ado about Nothing† and â€Å"King Lear Introduction Shakespeare is seen to value the role of women as his plays often portray women as heroines. These women have strong characters that endear them to readers. Readers in our current world, and especially women, are encouraged to be self-assertive in demand for equal treatment in our society. This has been the tradition for women in the Western world and is one that should be spread across all societies in the whole world. The characters that this